Dark Side of Light
by deathwing17
Summary: After a failed assassination attempt, Outworld, and Earthrealm are dragged into Remnant's war only to discover that the fate of this backwater Realm may be tied to every single Realm in existence.
1. Prologue

RWBY: Dark Side of Light

Prologue

A/N: Just so you know this is an AU so expect a bit of divergence from Mortal Kombat canon (or should it be kanon?) and RWBY canon. This former mainly due to how the new timeline was presented in MKX which was a bit wonky in my own opinion because some of the events in the game contradict what happened in the comics (mainly when certain events have happened) so I'm just going to make a few alterations to straighten things out a little. With RWBY I'm probably going to go in my own direction and things will veer off as time goes on, and I'll also be adding a few things and additional characters in to certain backstories. Mainly to add more depth to certain characters, OCs (decently written ones) and a few revisions to backstories (nothing stupid like Sindel being evil all along). One of the biggest is that instead of a twenty-five year time skip in between MK2011 and MKX it's only going to be a twenty year one.

Also this fanfic was inspired by Mortal Kombat Desperation by FloweryNamesLover, Of Crystal Shards and Dust by Daemon of Wrath and Dust and RWBY Heroes: A Double Edged Sword by Dunedan. The authors of all three were a tremendous help in offering their feedback during the planning phases, you guys are the best!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that I haven't created myself, Mortal Kombat is owned by Netherrealm Studios and RWBY is owned by Roosterteeth (dammit).

Now on to the show and please review and tell me what you think.

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-Unknown Location-

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Light and dark, good and evil. They are two sides that since the dawn of time have always been at war with one another and yet, one cannot exist without the other. It was an inevitability, just as the wheel of time continues to turn, ever onwards towards its inevitable conclusion as both light and dark continued to clash. Armageddon. The final battle between the forces of light and dark that would bring about the destruction of all the Realms in a final apocalyptic ending that would destroy all that ever was and all that ever would be. What most didn't know was that this would result in an entity more ancient than even the Elder Gods, returning. An entity that would be the destruction of all that ever was.

From what would emerge from the ashes of what was when the entity was reawakened no one knew, not the greatest of kings, not the wisest of sorcerers, not even the Elder Gods, in all their vast power and knowledge, knew. Not even the great Keeper of Time herself, Kronika knew. All that anyone knew was that it was something that must be prevented at all costs. To that end, Kronika had over perhaps hundreds of millions of years and perhaps millions of different timelines, manipulated events that would prevent Armageddon from ever occurring. And each time, she failed. Sometimes it happened at the hand of Shao Kahn, others it happened at the hands of Shinnok or Onaga and on rarer occasions still it was because of Daegon, Quan Chi or even Shang Tsung.

No matter what she did, be it through the subtleties and intrigue or even a far more direct approach, could Kronika prevent Armageddon from occurring and with it, the destruction of all existence. Whenever Armageddon started to occur, Kronika would reset time again and work through it all over again. Subtly manipulating people and events in a desperate attempt to thwart it. It was something that had been done so many times that even the Goddess of Time itself would wonder on occasion if she would ever lose track of it all.

In the last timeline, when Armageddon was about to commence at the Emperor of Outworld, Shao Kahn's hands, something happened. Something that happened without any subtle manipulation or direct action, something that _surprised_ Kronika.

When all hope seemed lost, and mere second before his own demise at the hands of Shao Kahn, the God of Thunder and protector of Earthrealm, Raiden sent a series of visions backwards in time to his younger self. Visions of the future and how Shao Kahn would bring about Armageddon. While the visions were a good attempt at a warning, the lack of preparation in sending them left them a jumbled mess that the Thunder God's past self struggled to make sense of. Initially it was his belief that if Shao Kahn's champions could be defeated in the Mortal Kombat tournament he would not be able to conquer Earthrealm and merge it with Outworld, then all would be well.

Mortal Kombat, a tournament system created by the Elder Gods in an effort to maintain balance and prevent large scale inter-Realm conflicts from occurring. If a Realm wished to invade another and merge them, then the invading realm had to defeat the defending realm's champions ten times in a row in a tournament held once every few years, though in Earthrealm's case it was once every fifty years. Upon defeating the defending Realm's champions after the tenth tournament the invading realm was allowed to carry out its invasion and merge the Realms. If the leader of the invading realm attempted to merge the Realms if they had not first won ten consecutive victories, then the Elder Gods would intervene themselves, and wipe the leader of the invasion out of existence and if their armies still did not relent, they would be next.

For thousands of years, Shao Kahn focused almost all of his efforts towards expanding his empire on conquering Earthrealm. With the help of the visions Raiden and the other champions won the tenth tournament, preventing Shao Kahn from merging the realms. What should have been a victory for Earthrealm however became only a temporary delay. Shao Kahn's advisor, the sorcerer Shang Tsung had devised a new strategy one that would offer bait far too tempting for the Thunder god to pass up. There would be a new tournament held in Outworld, and this time, if Earthrealm's champions won, then Shao Kahn would give up his claim to Earthrealm forever but if the forces of Shao Kahn emerged victorious, then Outworld would absorb Earthrealm.

Realizing that Earthrealm would be forever at risk if the standard tournament system continued, reluctantly agreed. While there were many battles in Outworld, ultimately, at the cost of one of Earthrealm's champion's lives, Earthrealm emerged victorious after Shao Kahn was near fatally wounded as the last Outworld combatant. For several months Raiden and his allies settled down, believing that they were at last free from the threat of Outworld.

They had vastly underestimated Shao Kahn's determination and the depths of his ambition. At the advice of the Netherrealm sorcerer Quan Chi, who stroked the conqueror's ego and offered up yet another plan. He claimed that the Elder Gods laws were mere fiction and that they should simply conquer the Realm by force of arms. After all the Elder Gods had never truly done anything on their own, as they had always used proxies to act in their stead. His anger stoked and pride threatened, Shao Kahn did just that.

For months Shao Kahn had quietly gathered his armies and prepared for his invasion. When he finally did strike, he took Earthrealm completely by surprise and over the course of several weeks, systematically tore apart Earthrealm's defenses and killing almost all of its champions before offering their souls to Quan Chi, who turned them into his own undead revenant slaves. However when Shao Kahn attempted to merge the realms the Elder Gods turned their full fury down on Shao Kahn and wiped him from existence.

While Shao Kahn had indeed been defeated there were still other threats, more specifically Quan Chi and his master, the fallen Elder God Shinnok who launched yet another invasion of Earthrealm two years after the first one had concluded, using the depleted manpower in its armies as the perfect opportunity to strike. Raiden and the remaining champions fought desperately against Shinnok and Quan Chi and with the help some unexpected allies, they turned the war around and defeated Shinnok, sealing him within his own amulet.

Eighteen years had passed since the Netherrealm war and now the Realms faced an uncertain future, not only to those that inhabited them but to Kronika as well. In all of her time shaping events, she had never seen them unfold quite like this before. It was one of the reasons why she heeded her daughter Cetrion's advice, that this time she would let the mortals do as they willed, without planting ideas in their minds, unless of course Armageddon started once again.

It was a gamble to be sure, but at this point she was more than willing to try anything. So far things had not proceeded as they normally did, which could either be good or bad. Champions that were on the side of light had been forced to serve the dark and now there were new champions for the light that would not have existed before if the timeline had not been altered by Raiden.

Now new events were starting to unfold and it was quickly becoming apparent that unlike every other iteration of Armageddon. Warriors that would have died in obscurity were alive and fighting, while warriors that were once on the side of light were now forced to fight on the side darkness. Even the location for the final battle had changed. It wouldn't be fought atop a pyramid centered in a large crater in the ruined Realm of Edenia. Instead it would occur in a backwards, seemingly insignificant Realm that very few knew or cared about. A Realm known to its inhabitants, simply as Remnant.

Kronika looked away from her hourglass and allowed the visions of the past and countless possible futures to cease. Standing vigil over her was the entity known as Geras. Geras was a construct that Kronika created to act as both an agent of her will, as well as an ever faithful guard to watch over her hourglass which controlled the sands of time itself when she was otherwise occupied. Geras had been her constant companion throughout all this time and save for her daughter Cetrion, there was no one she trusted more.

"Geras, you have been with me since the beginning. Since I began my…quest to save the Realms throughout all of these countless iterations you have stood by me. Tell me. Am I doing the right thing by letting events unfold without any…manipulations?" She asked.

Geras did not so much as make any real movements at first and instead continued to stand watch, his stoicism not betraying how he felt "Kronika, like you I have been witness to countless timelines and thus far none of them have ever unfolded quite like this before. We may be doing the right thing, we may be doing the wrong thing, but perhaps it is best that for the time being, we let events continue as they are."

It was times like this that Kronika was grateful that Geras was more than just a protector for the Hourglass. He was also a very capable advisor who did not hesitate to give his honest opinion on a matter, even if said opinion was something that she really didn't want to hear. "I suppose there is some merit to that. In all honesty Geras I am very, very tired, as ironic as that may sound. I'm tired of the manipulations and the failures to stop the destruction of the Realms. Perhaps the prevention of Armageddon lies not in the hands of the Elder Gods, but maybe in the hands of simpler, more honest souls."

She gave a sad smile to her longtime companion before turning back to the hourglass. Watching as events began to unfold.

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To be continued.

A/N: yes I know that this was basically an info dump and that was why it was released with the first chapter. I mainly wrote this so that anyone who has watched RWBY and hasn't played Mortal Kombat will have an easier time following along.

As for those of you who HAVE played Mortal Kombat 11 and recognize Kronika as the villain of that game and are wondering why she's acting the way she is here well…I felt that Kronika in MK11 was a bland, boring and ultimately redundant villain. Out of nowhere she took the place of a villain that the remake timeline had been building up to (in this case a corrupted Raiden or even The One Being) and apparently her motivation is to create the "perfect timeline", but they never explain why that is other than achieving "balance between good and evil" and that's it. We're never told why the balance between good and evil is so important and we never get any kind of definitive answer because she dies at the end of the game she is introduced in.

Now the majority of the MK villains motivations can be summed up in one sentence: They are power hungry bastards or they are after revenge, or both. Thus all their actions are to expand their own power and/or obtain revenge. However Kronika's goals are clearly more than just power for herself but given that she dies at the end of the game without even any real elaboration on what they are just makes her seem somewhat boring and forgettable as a villain.

That's why I'm making her more of a neutral character, one who is trying to prevent Armageddon (whereas in the original game it's heavily implied she set it into motion as part of her plan to "balance the universe") and has spent billions of years trying to do it, only to fail each time. Now she's definitely not a nice character, she's interfered with free will (by planting her own ideas into the heads of others) and has caused a lot of suffering and death towards countless people both innocent and guilty as a result. Granted it's to prevent the end of the universe but some might argue that she is doing some rather unethical things to go about it but given the stakes involved *shrugs* it might be justified depending on who you ask.

Whether or not she'll have any more of an impact on later chapters, well…I'm not going to tell you.


	2. A New Enemy

Dark Side of Light

Chapter 1

A New Enemy

Disclaimer: I do not own Mortal Kombat or RWBY as they are all owned by their respective copyright owners.

_Revenge is the sword that wounds the one who wields it._

— E. C. McKenzie

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-Outworld, Capital City of Z'Unkahrah, Marketplace-

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Outworld had changed much in the past eighteen years. For hundreds of thousands of years, the realm was little more than a bleak world, filled with some of the most dangerous creatures to have ever existed. But this place wasn't just inhospitable to any foreign entity, it was also dangerous to the inhabitants as well. The more civilized people that lived there (and that was seriously stretching the term) always had difficulty traversing anything outside of the primary cities of Outworld and some of the more fortified settlements.

While the former emperor; Shao Kahn was a brilliant military leader he wasn't all that effective at ruling the many realms he had conquered outside of keeping them in line and ensuring they paid their dues. So long as his tithes were met on time and the inhabitants did not revolt against him, he didn't care what happened to them. As one might expect this didn't truly improve one's living conditions. The only thing that kept the people of Outworld from rebellion was the efforts of one general in Shao Kahn's council, an Osh-Tekk warrior named Ko'atal. He and several of his lieutenants worked to at least try to improve life for the inhabitants of Outworld, all while remaining relatively loyal soldiers to Shao Kahn.

Things quickly changed after Shao Kahn's demise at the hands of Raiden and the Elder Gods after he violated the rules of Mortal Kombat when he attempted to merge Earthrealm and Outworld without first attaining victory in Mortal Kombat. After his demise, Shao Kahn's daughter Mileena, -an experiment that combined both Edenian and Tarkatan bloodlines created in the Flesh Pits- quickly assumed the throne. Almost immediately Kahnum Mileena proved herself to be even more tyrannical and unstable than her 'father' Shao Kahn ever was.

While Shao Kahn was a far better conqueror than he was a ruler, he was at least wise enough to entrust most domestic matters outside of a rebellion to more capable advisers such as Ko'atal, D'Vorah, Reiko and other generals in his army. Mileena however completely ignored almost all of her father's councilors' attempts to advise her on such matters and instead continued to run Outworld into the ground.

In the beginning of Netherrealm's war with Earthrealm just a little over two years after Mileena's coronation, Ko'atal and several other members of Outworld's court repeatedly tried to convince Mileena to go to Earthrealm's aid against Shinnok and Quan Chi. They argued that if and when Earthrealm fell to the forces of the Netherrealm, Outworld would be the fallen Elder God's next target. Mileena repeatedly refused to even consider about offering any sort of military aid for her father's old enemies and it was said that she even entertained the idea of aiding Shinnok in his conquest of Earthrealm so as to take vengeance for the death of Shao Kahn.

This combined with her own emotional and psychological shortcomings caused almost all residents of Outworld aside from her most fanatically devoted subjects to turn against her. Ko'atal and several of his allies held a meeting to discuss what to do with Mileena. She refused to listen to any advice they gave that did not stroke her own ego and continued to abuse her subjects as though they were her playthings despite the protests of several members of the council. In fact in the two short years since she had been crowned ruler, things had gotten so bad that almost all of Outworld was practically on the verge of rising up in open rebellion against the Kahnum. Something that was completely unheard of in all of Outworld's history, the idea that _all_ of Outworld would rise up against a Kahn was something that hadn't happened before.

Everything came to a head when Mileena and a small contingent of Tarkatan warriors barged into a meeting between Ko'atal, Reptile and D'Vorah and attempted to arrest them for conspiracy to commit treason. With the aid of Ermac, Goro and several other dissenters, Ko'atal Reptile and D'Vorah managed to defeat the guards and captured Mileena and killed her most (and at that point only) loyal follower Baraka, the leader of the savage Tarkatans.

With that having been done, Kotal Kahn sent several contingents of soldiers to Earthrealm to offer aid in their fight against Shinnok and Quan Chi. Many on Earthrealm considered the entire scenario very ironic given that just two years earlier they had been fighting against the forces of Outworld. Within several short weeks, Shinnok and his forces found themselves being pushed back, bit by bit until he and Quan Chi launched a desperate last ditch assault on the Jinsei of Earth Realm, in order to corrupt it and all life in Earth Realm.

Thankfully Shinnok's plan was foiled at the last moment and the fallen Elder God found himself sealed away within his own amulet and three of the Earthrealm warriors that his second in command had turned into undead Revenants were restored to who they were before they died. Unfortunately Quan Chi managed to escape back to the Netherrealm with the other Revenants before he could be forced to undo his dark work on them.

Initially there were many who suspected that the new Kahn would attempt to take advantage of the situation and try to conquer Earthrealm. However he did just the opposite and instead returned to Outworld along with the rest of his forces without any hassle.

A handful of months after the Netherrealm war, Mileena was broken out of prison by a group of "loyalists" before she could be executed. This started the Outworld Civil War has continued for almost twenty years. While there had been many victories against Mileena's forces the war still continued and the longer it dragged on, the more Outworld's resources would continue to be drained. As a result, Kotal Kahn had started to resort to more, unsavory methods of obtaining information on Mileena and her army's whereabouts. While Ko'atal wasn't fond of some of these methods, they were a necessary task to end this accursed war and bring order and stability back to Outworld.

Currently Kotal Kahn was inside a heavily guarded carriage that was making its way through the marketplace. Inside the carriage were two guests. One was one of his most trusted councilors, a Kytinn by the name of D'Vorah and the other was an individual who claimed to know where Mileena and her army were hiding. Of course there were many in Kotal Kahn's court who were doubtful of this man's claims given his reputation. After all Kano was a criminal who worked for whoever offered him the most money and such individuals could very rarely be trusted.

The cybernetic scoundrel was sitting across from the two, trying to get the best deal he possibly could from Outworld's new ruler. Outworld's ruler however was immensely skeptical of Kano's claims and as such was not willing to put a high price on what could very well be faulty Intel. "Twenty million," were the two words that came out of the Osh-Tekk Emperor's mouth.

Kano leaned forwards for a moment and stroked his greying beard while he gave the leader of Outworld a smug smirk and his red cybernetic eye glowed almost mockingly. "Emperor, what's the expression: 'It ain't worth the dirt off my boot'?"

With that D'Vorah narrowed her compound eyes at one of Earth Realm's most wanted criminals "Kotal Kahn has always bargained fairly with you Kano." She uttered with a small hiss at the disrespect Kano was showing Kotal Kahn. Kano gave D'Vorah a small grin "Sure, sure. But I'm just sayin', upgraded weapons, my Intel and presto, the Outworld Civil War is over and done with." Kano leaned back lazily in his seat with a cheeky grin "Might be nice to kick back and relax a bit, eh?"

Kotal Kahn raised an eyebrow in skepticism "You know Mileena's location?" he asked warily. The leader of Outworld knew that Kano was a very duplicitous man. He had probably known her location from the beginning but was merely waiting for Kotal Kahn to be desperate to end the war and then charge him an exorbitant amount for the information.

Kano smirked "And her whole rebel army. S'gotta be worth at least, fifty." The ruler of Outworld let out a bated breath "I must destroy her and end this conflict. As you have said, the longer this war continues on the more it will drain us." With that having been said, Kano looked as though he had just won the jackpot "Right, so we gotta deal then, eh?" he asked.

The ruler of Outworld was about to give his answer when all of the sudden the oversized carriage came to a halt. "What is happening D'Vorah?" The walking, talking insect hive looked behind her and narrowed her compound eyes at the sight at the front of the carriage "The Emperor should not be concerned. Accident ahead. This one will clear it," she declared before getting out of her seat and exited the carriage.

Once outside she called for the citizens that were attempting to remove the massive accident to make way for Kotal Kahn. From there she and a small contingent of Kotal Kahn's guards including Ermac began to break formation to move to assist the citizens in moving the crashed carriages out of the way. The accident itself had somehow managed to almost completely obstruct the road ahead of the Kahn's carriage. In fact it almost seemed as though it was more of an enormous makeshift barricade than a simple accident.

As the Kytinn walked towards the accident site one of the Kahn's newer allies, started to walk up to her, a frown on his face. This individual was a former member of Earthrealm's Special Forces turned mercenary by the name of Michael Tanner who had for the past several years been aiding Kotal Kahn in eliminating the rebels in exchange for Outworld's 'assistance' in some matter. Whatever this 'assistance' entailed, only Kotal Kahn was privy to.

"D'Vorah, you mind explaining to me why you decided to leave the Kahn of Outworld alone with a psychotic arms dealer who would probably be willing to murder his own mother for a single koin?" he asked incredulously. D'Vorah tilted her head at Michael for a moment with an unreadable expression on her face "This one is more than aware of that. This one is also more than aware that Kotal Kahn is more than capable of defending himself if he finds himself threatened by Kano."

Tanner couldn't argue with the fact that Kotal Kahn was a formidable warrior in his own right but Tanner also knew that Kano was not someone to be underestimated. Kano and his Black Dragon Clan had always played both sides of various conflicts against one another in order to maximize profits from their weapon proliferations. Whenever a war started up between two third world countries, that the rest of Earthrealm didn't really give a shit about, Kano and his buddies would start supplying both sides with weapons and equipment to milk the war for all it was worth.

Someone like that couldn't be trusted to be unsupervised near Kotal Kahn for any length of time. Hell the only thing Kano could be trusted to do was stab you in the back the instant he had the opportunity, especially if there was money in it for him. In fact, every time he got the chance Tanner did his best to remind Kotal Kahn that this was a decision that would bite him in the ass one of these days.

As the Kytinn moved to go and help clear the roadblock Michael shook his head and muttered "I really hope you know what you're doing bug lady, I really do."

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-Nearby Rooftop-

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Atop a nearby two story building were a small group of individuals who had been trailing the convoy for several blocks now. As they waited and observed the convoy for their time, one of the individuals an Edenian male that went by the moniker of Rain spoke to the leader of the group "Stopping a carriage is one thing, killing an emperor is-" he started before he received a heated glare from his leader, the deposed Empress of Outworld, Mileena. "_False_ Emperor!" she clarified harshly.

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes Rain continued "Regardless, to destroy a being such as Kotal Kahn requires power. Power that you have and yet abstain from using." Behind her own patched together mask, Mileena frowned deeply. She pulled out the amulet that was slightly larger than her own hand and held it in view. Ordinarily she would be just fine with using it but with the more recent engagements between her forces and that of the usurper's, it felt as though it were sapping her life force each time she used it.

"It pains me whenever I use it now, I need more time," she explained. Before Rain could make a retort one of Mileena's other lieutenants, another Edenian that went by the name of Tanya approached "The Tarkatans and our new allies are all in position, we merely await your order."

The deposed empress turned to her longtime ally and said "It is given dearest Tanya. Spare no one!"

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-Blockaded Street-

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Mere seconds after Mileena ordered the attack, complete and utter pandemonium erupted in the streets surrounding Kotal Kahn's carriage. From all sides, dozens of Tarkatans and a group of strange individuals, each wearing uniforms that were completely foreign to the Outworld warriors. Each of them had a black and white colored outfit and wore almost animalistic masks that obscured the top portions of their faces. Unlike the Tarkatans who were armed with only their arm blades, these individuals carried a mix between swords and guns.

In the middle of it all was Michael Tanner who had brought up his AK-74m rifle and began unloading at the Tarkatans and their new allies that were rushing out of the alleyways. The bullets tore through the unarmored Tarkatans like tissue paper but they kept on coming just as their masked friends did. Those that were wearing masks seemed human at first glance but when Tanner managed to get a decent look he saw that they had animalistic traits like tails, horns or even animal like ears jutting from the tops of their heads. It was like looking at a bunch of heavily armed and psychotic nekomimi cosplayers.

Still most of them went down just as easily as the Tarkatans' did. Others however were only knocked down temporarily and got back up. It was almost like the bullets had hit some kind of invisible barrier that while they did get hit by the rounds, they weren't wounded by them. Were these new guys being protected by some sort of magic? If so then why weren't the Tarkatans under the same kind of protection?

No matter, it was a little mystery that he could figure out for himself at a later time. Right now he had to focus on killing these assholes!

The Tarkatans and their allies kept charging at the convoy and within a few seconds Tanner's assault rifle ran out of ammo and he was forced to switch to his sidearm, an H&K Mk 23 with an extended magazine and a tactical knife. He began taking headshots at the Tarkatans and their friends until they were all but upon him. From there he holstered his pistol and engaged the enemy in close combat.

Tanner knew how the Tarkatans' fought, they were undisciplined and they didn't believe in training for battle, rather they relied on ferocity and savagery to win the day. It was a policy that while useful when it came to inflicting terror on a civilian populace and perhaps enemy soldiers but against someone who had fought against them and lived time and again it was not all that threatening. In fact at this point it was all but predictable and thus made them incredibly easy to outmaneuver.

Case and point when one of the Tarkatan's ran up to him and attempted a horizontal strike at his neck with his left arm-blade (not really sure what the blades that Tarkatans have are called so if anyone knows let me know). However the strike was clumsy as the Tarkatan needed to lean forwards in order to get close enough. Tanner ducked underneath the blow and lunged upwards with his combat knife. The blade struck the Tarkatan just below the ribcage and slid the knife upwards into the ugly bastard's heart, killing him almost instantaneously. As the Tarkatan warrior started to slump forwards Tanner withdrew the blade and stepped backwards allowing the Tarkatan to fall without letting it fall on top of him.

From there it continued, Tanner continued to slaughter any and all of the Tarkatan warriors he saw as well as their new allies. These strange individuals with animalistic features -that made Tanner think that they went to Japan they'd probably become overnight celebrities if they weren't completely psycho- were just as ferocious as the Tarkatans albeit slightly more disciplined and actually bothered to use battlefield tactics.

As Tanner continued to fight he made his way back to Ko'atal's carriage. He needed to ensure that Outworld's Emperor was still alive and kicking, after all Kotal Kahn needed to be alive if their bargain was to be fulfilled. Tanner was almost there when he saw the door to the carriage crash open and a semi-conscious Kano flew out onto the ground.

Tanner looked up from Kano to the carriage where Kotal Kahn was now stepping out of, he was covered in a handful of wounds but they appeared as though they were superficial in nature. Besides given the kind of blows that Ko'atal was able to shrug off in battle it was likely that the Oshtekk warrior would be fine. Still though Tanner did ask "You alright boss?"

Ko'atal said nothing to Tanner, instead he marched over towards the treacherous arms dealer, cursing very liberally in his native language. Yeah it was obvious that Kotal Kahn was fine; very, very pissed but fine. As he marched towards Kano, presumably to rip out his heart and take a bite out of it, one of the scoundrel's allies entered the fray. This one was an Edenian woman with brown hair that was done into a bob cut that reached her neck and was dressed in a yellow outfit that left next to nothing to the imagination conjured a fireball in her hand before throwing it at the Emperor of Outworld.

Ko'atal barely managed to sidestep the attack but when he did the Edenian woman leaped down from her perch atop part of the ruined barricade that had been used to ambush the Emperor. Kotal Kahn's eyes narrowed at the Edenian woman "You are the Edenian woman _Tanya_!" Kotal Kahn practically spat the woman's name in disgust.

Tanya gave a mocking bow to the Emperor of Outworld "I'm very pleased you remember me Ko'atal." Without warning she struck again this time sending a full stream of fire out at Kotal Kahn. The Oshtekk warrior blocked it with his left hand before diverting it back at the woman sending her crashing to the ground. "I will never forget those that freed Mileena!" he said barely resisting the urge to roar in hatred and rage at the woman.

Despite her own injuries Tanya got back up and drew her bladed tonfas ready to strike the instant that the opportunity presented itself. "She vowed to create a free Edenia, something that you have repeatedly refused to do." Kotal Kahn struck first, drawing his oversized dagger and slashing at Tanya's neck. The Edenian woman managed to block the blow with her bladed tonfas.

"A united Outworld, stands strong against all who would dare threaten it!" Kotal Kahn declared. Tanya barely managed to break away from the blade lock she had found herself in. While she was a skilled fighter, spy and assassin she wasn't strong in a direct confrontation. Instead she relied primarily on agility and lighting fast strikes to win the day. This however was not a fight she could win with brute strength especially considering that Kotal Kahn was far more powerful than she was. Immediately Tanya backed off and did several backflips to gain some distance from Outworld's current ruler.

Once she was a fair distance away, Tanya recommenced her psychological games with Ko'atal. She had to get him off balance before she tried to strike at him again. "Outworld will never be united under your rule. After all, what kind of ruler would allow his own father to die such a horrific death at the hands of a blood magic addled Shokan?" That seemed to touch a raw nerve with the Kahn. His father's death had been almost a year ago but it was still a raw emotional pain for him and this accursed traitor had the gall to rub it in his face.

"I will rip your beating heart out and feed it to you for that traitor!" he yelled before he heard the sounds of several gunshots. Dust and sand was sent up from the ground from the impacts. Standing just a few feet away was a man who would not look out of place as a villain or hero in some old western film "I think I'll handle this one boss. Me and her, we've got some issues we need to work out," the man, Erron Black declared.

From there the gunslinger and the Edenian backstabber (both literally and figuratively) engaged one another in kombat. Whatever it was that those two had against one another it was doubtlessly personal. After all, considering how often Tanya backstabbed people for her own personal gain it was very probable that she had hired Erron Black for a job at some point and then turned on him so as to avoid paying his fee.

Erron Black fired from his revolvers at Tanya. Unfortunately she had predicted such a move and dove behind the ruined remains of Kotal Kahn's once luxurious transport. Scowling even further behind his mask, Erron said "Boss you mind if I deal with this backstabbing bitch?" he asked.

"By all means," said Ko'atal before Erron moved to engage the Edenian, buying some much needed breathing room for both Kotal Kahn and Tanner.

The moment of peace that Erron Black had managed to give to them only lasted a few short seconds as another Edenian joined the fray. This was another one of Mileena's rescuers from several years ago. He was a tall muscular man who wore combat robes that were a mixture of purple and gold, a sign of either high ranking nobility or even outright royalty in Edenian culture. Only those who were very high up in the food chain in Edenia could even think about wearing something like that. On his face was a strange mix between a mask and a crown, or rather an attempt at one.

Tanner and Kotal Kahn instantly knew who this man was. It was an egomaniac who was going around claiming that he was the son of an Elder God by the name of Argus. According to legend, Argus did indeed have two half-breed sons with an Edenian sorceress that he had married but that was all. It is possible he could have sired earlier offspring before he found the sorceress or he cheated on her but that was unlikely. Instead it was far more likely that this pathetic narcissist was simply making things up in order to seem more important than he actually was. Hell he may even believe the lies he had been telling everyone.

"Another Edenian, the supposed half-god, Rain." In all honesty Kotal Kahn was getting very sick of the rebel Edenians he had been running into today. The Emperor of Outworld briefly wondered why these Edenians kept trying to kill him. He had done nothing to earn their ire. He had not slaughtered their people, he had not enslaved them and he even had a number of Edenians on his council.

"_True_ half-god, I am the son of Argus, and I was not given this title by befuddled commoners Buluc!" There wasn't even a second of hesitation as Rain once again tried striking at the ruler of Outworld, this time conjuring a giant ball of water around the emperor with the intent of drowning him within it. However the tattoos that crisscrossed Kotal Kahn's body began to glow as the power of sun overpowered the sphere of water, causing the water to explode outwards away from Outworld's ruler. For a brief second, Rain flinched and that was all the time that Kotal Kahn needed to press the advantage. Swung his fist directly into rain's face sending him reeling backwards until he hit the wall of a nearby building.

Rain snarled and struck back at the Emperor of Outworld, sending a bolt of purple colored lightning from his hand directly towards the Oshtekk. Kotal Kahn however had seen this attack coming and managed to lean to the left in a preemptive attempt at dodging the blow. It worked and the lightning bolt impacted against another stone building harmlessly.

Kotal Kahn not wanting to give the Edenian another chance to strike at him, charged Rain and before the demigod could react, Kotal Kahn grabbed him by his face even as Rain tried to push the Oshtekk warrior off of him. However his struggles weren't as strong as Kotal's grip, especially when he slammed the back of the Edenian's head into the wall, repeatedly. After the third strike Rain finally managed to summon up the strength needed to push Kotal Kahn off of him and jumped upwards and extended his leg to strike at Kotal Kahn's head. The blow struck home, sending Outworld's Emperor staggering backwards for a moment before he managed to regain his footing.

It was at that point that Kotal Kahn saw that Rain was now charging him directly. Wasting no time the Kahn of Outworld raised his left hand up to the sky and a ray of sunlight shown down onto it, causing his tattoos to glow a bright yellow. He extended his right palm outwards in the direction of Rain who, realizing what was about to happen attempted to reflexively raise a barrier of water between himself and the Emperor's approaching attack.

Unfortunately for the Edenian the ray of pure scorching sunlight easily blasted its way through the rather weak attempt at a shield, evaporating the water into a fine mist, and blasted into his chest. Rain let out a scream of pain as he was thrown backwards onto the ground, with a large second, perhaps even third degree burn on most of his chest. Already he was groaning in pain.

Kotal Kahn looked over at Tanner and gave his subordinate a nod. The mercenary let out a small chuckle and a sadistic smirk began to creep into his facial features. He walked up to the wounded Edenian and placed a booted foot onto the burned flesh of Rain's chest, eliciting a scream of utter agony from the demigod.

The mercenary then and aimed his pistol directly at Rain's head "So much for godhood," he remarked, his grin growing as he pulled the trigger. The bullet rammed straight into Rain's skull and out the other side, sending blood, bone, and brain matter onto the brick road.

With that out of the way, Tanner ejected the now empty clip and slammed a fresh one in and looked back to where Kano had been lying down just a few moments earlier. Only now it seemed as though the bastard had completely disappeared. "Oh you've gotta be fucking kidding me! He got away again?!" He demanded. It was like a goddamn recurring theme with that bastard. Every time they cornered him and looked away for so much as an instant the next moment he was gone.

Kotal Kahn shook his head at his subordinate "We have more pressing concerns than that at the moment. Mileena is behind this and she is most likely nearby I want her-" he started but was unable to finish as one of Kotal Kahn's guards ran up to him as quickly as he could and immediately knelt.

"My Emperor, the enemy is already being pushed back and your royal guard have found Mileena and cornered her in a nearby alley!" he declared.

Both Kotal Kahn and Tanner looked at one another with looks of surprise and hope. It seemed as though this rebellion would soon end and Ko'atal's part in his deal with Tanner would begin. Both of them were about to make their way towards the alley when they saw Erron Black and several guards making their way towards them, the former of which walked with a limp. His left thigh had a rather gruesome looking burn on it. It was also clear that despite Erron's obscured facial features thanks to the mask that covered everything below the bridge of his nose, he was not happy.

"I'm guessing that Tanya managed to escape?" asked Tanner, to which Erron nodded but also let out a small annoyed snarl at the same time "Bitch hit me with a cheap shot. I'll get 'er next time," he explained angrily. They didn't ask for details at the moment because they had far more important things to deal with.

"Get yourself to a healer Erron, we will deal with Tanya in due time!" ordered Kotal Kahn to which the mercenary gave a small nod as two of Kotal Kahn's men moved forward to take him to a healer.

With that having been said The Emperor of Outworld and the former Special Forces officer followed the guards to an alleyway a short distance away where D'Vorah, Ermac, Reptile and several other members of Kotal Kahn's royal guardsmen were waiting for them.

Mileena was back up against a wall and looked completely and utterly furious at the ones who had helped usurp her throne. Of course the fact that they never would have attempted to do such a thing if she wasn't such an incompetent lunatic never once crossed her mind.

The instant she spotted Kotal Kahn and Tanner she looked utterly furious even with her mask obscuring the lower half of her face. "Kano was supposed to have killed you snake!" she yelled in what she probably thought was a rage. Instead though it made her look more like a petulant child who had just been denied something she wanted.

"You should hire better assassins Mileena, not that it will do you any good now," said Tanner with a smirk as he raised his pistol and aimed it directly at her head. He looked like he was about to pull the trigger when Kotal Kahn put his hand on the weapon and gave its wielder a stern look. Tanner looked reluctant to lower the weapon but did as his employer instructed, although he didn't holster it.

Everyone's attention was quickly turned back to Mileena who was now screaming at the top of her lungs "I will have you all executed for what you have done you usurper! You will all die!" Kotal Kahn however looked almost dispassionately at the display the crazed former empress was giving. He clearly took no pleasure in what he was about to do, instead likening it to putting down a rabid animal. When one considered everything that Mileena had done when she had first taken power and the atrocities she had committed when rebelling against him when he had overthrown her, the description was well put.

"There shall be an execution Mileena. You will atone for your dissent, for the countless innocents you and your rebellion have slaughtered. Your blood will make right." Kotal Kahn began to raise both of his hands upwards for a moment as fire began to surround his body. "Up the stair path…" his hands were now aimed directly at the fallen empress "…To the fire's edge!" he declared sending a stream of fire directly at his target.

Before it could reach Mileena however she quickly raised a bronze amulet with a green gemstone located directly in the center. The amulet glowed an eerie blue and looked as though it was absorbing the fire that was being thrown at it. Tanner raised his pistol again and aimed it squarely at Mileena's head but before he could pull the trigger a massive wave of energy was emitted from the amulet sending everyone, the amulet's wielder included onto their backsides.

Tanner managed to get a good look at Mileena who was desperately trying to get onto her feet and only now did he notice that the arm that had been holding it was now covered in burns that went from the tip of her fingers to just past her elbow. The burns must have done considerable damage to the nerves in her arm because while she saw the damage, she wasn't showing any signs of pain. In fact she seemed to be more pissed off than anything else.

The former Special Forces officer raised his pistol once again and aimed it squarely at the former empress of Outworld. Before he could pull the trigger however, there was a flash of yellow light and black smoke. Then there was Tanya kneeling over the fallen former empress, and then just as quickly as she appeared both the Edenian and the Tarkatan half-breed were engulfed in the same flash of light and smoke. Immediately Tanner sent several rounds into the smoke on the off chance that they would hit the target. Of course, the very moment that the smoke cleared there were no bodies to be found.

Tanner picked himself up off the ground and saw that D'Vorah was already up and was assisting the Emperor off of the ground as well. "What did we just witness our Emperor?" the insect woman asked. Once Kotal Kahn had fully picked himself up he stood at full height and had a stern yet still calm look on his face but Tanner knew the man well enough that this was his royally pissed face "That a cornered Jaguar is when it is at its most dangerous."

He then turned to his subjects, looking relatively calm but it was clear that he was anything but "Were any prisoners taken during the battle?" the emperor asked. Two of the guards looked at each other before the higher ranking one answered "Yes my lord, a relatively good number of them, most of them were Mileena's new allies. They were captured when we found them butchering the citizens. We also managed to apprehend a few Tarkatans but most committed hara-kiri before we could apprehend them."

That wasn't much of a surprise. The Tarkatans were fanatically devoted to Shao Kahn and when Mileena had taken over Outworld after her 'father's' death, their fanatical loyalty transferred over to her. As a result Mileena had favored them over any other race in Outworld which contributed the other races rebelling against her. Of course this particular brand of loyalty meant that they almost never got anything out of Tarkatan prisoners, including when they used more (by Outworld standards at least) heavy handed methods of interrogation.

These new prisoners however. Perhaps they would be more, receptive to questioning.

When Kotal Kahn walked out of the alley he saw several of the wounded prisoners being forced down the street in chains, each of them trying to look defiant at Outworld's emperor or at the very least made the attempt to do so. Some were more successful at looking defiant than others, who were clearly scared out of their wits. Of course any defiance would be gone once Kotal Kahn's torturer's got to work on them. Instead there would be nothing but screams.

After all one didn't harm Kotal Kahn's people and expect to get away with it.

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\- Outworld, Capital City of Z'Unkahrah, Kotal Kahn's Palace, Throne Room, days later-

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Several days passed since the botched attempt on Kotal Kahn's life by Mileena's forces and her new allies. Since then Kotal Kahn's interrogators had been had worked day and night on the prisoners. The first questions had been fairly rudimentary at first: "Who are you?", "What are you?", "What realm do you hail from?" and similar questions.

At first they had all refused to answer any questions at all, not even giving up their names. Perhaps they all knew that they were as good as dead at this point and thought that they could win a small victory over their captors by denying them the information that they wanted from them. That kind of resistance didn't last very long after the interrogators lost patience with their posturing. The screams that came from the dungeons lasted well into the night until the prisoners' throats were too hoarse for such activity.

None found any sympathy for the attackers as they had not only thrown themselves at Kotal Kahn but they had also massacred the civilian population of Z'Unkahrah to distract the city guards from the assassination attempt. They had already found that at least two hundred were killed and even more bodies were being found every hour. Already the people of Outworld were demanding justice/vengeance for this affront.

Currently Kotal Kahn was waiting in the throne room sitting atop the Throne of Outworld with a relatively calm expression but those who knew him well, knew full well that he was anything but. Mileena had not only made yet another attempt on his life but she had done so with new allies. Allies who had slaughtered over a hundred of his subjects during their attempt on his life. Subjects that he had sworn to lead and protect when he overthrew Mileena and became Kahn. Whoever these fools were they would suffer for their crimes against Outworld.

Eventually the doors leading into the throne room opened with a loud booming noise causing Kotal Kahn to turn his head in the direction of the disturbance. When he turned he saw D'Vorah, Tanner, and Ermac make their way over to him. They soon stopped right in front of the Emperor of Outworld and kneeled down as was only right and proper.

"Kotal Kahn, the torturers have broken the prisoners and this one has some intriguing news to share with you." When D'Vorah spoke she had a hint of glee in her voice. Kotal Kahn motioned for her to continue, "These allies of Mileena are called Faunus and they are part of a faction known as the White Fang. Apparently those they serve came into contact with Mileena's army almost a year ago when she and her remaining army was forced to flee from Outworld after the battle in the Golden Desert destroyed most of her forces."

Ah that was a battle that Kotal Kahn remembered quite well. It was shortly after Reiko's death that Mileena made an attempt to strike at Z'Unkahrah. Mileena was gathering up her forces in the Golden Desert to prepare for a direct assault at the capitol. She had been under the impression that Kotal Kahn's forces were scattered because of the near war with the Shokan and the crisis that ensued with a former Outworld general named Reiko afterwards.

Instead when she had gathered her forces, they came under direct bombardment by several long range rockets, each one tipped with Novichok and VX nerve gas, provided by Michael Tanner and his allies. These particular weapons decimated two thirds of her forces and that was before they even had a chance to come into contact with Kotal Kahn's forces, forcing her remaining army to retreat from Outworld before the battle was even joined.

Kotal Kahn was brought from his musings when Tanner spoke up "My Emperor if I may, I have a few theories regarding this amulet." Kotal Kahn, motioned for the Earthrealmer to continue. "I believe that Mileena has had this weapon for the last few months at least."

"What makes you say that?" Kotal Kahn asked, wondering where the human was going with this. "Ever since Mileena was driven from Outworld and into parts unknown her army has raided remote villages and taken supplies that she uses to feed her remaining forces but recently I've read reports that the raids have changed somewhat. Before they would simply kill the majority of the people there and take whatever supplies they wanted, but they would always leave the structures relatively intact. Recently though most of those villages have been completely annihilated and anything that could be used for supplies were left alone."

Kotal Kahn immediately caught on to what Tanner was implying "You believe that she was using those villages to test the power of the amulet." It was not a question but Tanner nodded "Yes Kotal Kahn, I believe that she was using it to properly see the effects and possible downsides in a relatively controlled environment. She most likely only used this artifact when she did out of desperation, we all saw the damage it did to her arm after she attacked you with it. So it is very likely that the amulet takes something from her each time she makes use of its power."

That would make sense after all they had all seen that most powerful magic always had some sort of a price to pay. One only had to remember Reiko's mad quest to become the Blood God to see the truth. It seemed that the whole incident hadn't imparted the same wisdom into Mileena when she decided to use something that was clearly beyond her ability to properly control. After all an amulet forged by an Elder God could only be properly wielded by an individual of at least semi-divine status.

"That would make sense as Shinnok's Amulet was made only for his use and not those that were mortal." When Kotal Kahn said that he was sure that he saw Tanner's face start to pale slightly. "You recognized it just as well as I did Tanner. There can be no doubt that the amulet she used belonged to the fallen Elder God."

Tanner looked hesitant as though he couldn't believe it himself before he finally nodded in confirmation, as if any more was truly needed. Kotal Kahn figured as much himself "Now the question is how Mileena would have such a powerful weapon in her possession. I don't think that Earthrealm would have been so foolish as to give a madwoman something so dangerous but that doesn't mean I won't be looking for answers from them."

With that Tanner started to relax somewhat. While he had become quite…estranged, for lack of better term, from his home realm over the years, he still held at least some sympathy towards at least some of the people that lived there. However such things were unimportant at the moment, he needed to know where Mileena had fled, and where her new allies had come from.

When he asked this, D'Vorah was the one who spoke "This one spoke to the torturers earlier, these 'White Fang' come from a Realm called 'Remnant.' Although they have not yet stated why they would be so foolish as to ally with Mileena."

Kotal Kahn was about to ask for information about Remnant when Ermac spoke "We know little of Remnant. The souls in our body know of it as little more than a backwater realm of no real importance. Shao Kahn once considered it a possibility for conquest for a time but instead he soon focused all of his attention on Earthrealm."

Ermac was a being created by the late Emperor Shao Kahn, he had the souls of many warriors fused into his body. No one knew just how many souls were in his body; it could have been anything from a hundred to thousands at least.

It didn't matter why they had aligned with the former empress of Outworld. Whether they were cajoled or not, it mattered little they would be wiped out along with Mileena and her army, no matter what it took. Kotal Kahn barely to suppress a growl of anger when he remembered the atrocities committed against his subjects.

"Prepare my armies, we will lay waste to this 'Remnant' for not only daring to aid Mileena and her rebels but for slaughtering the people of Outworld!" Kotal Kahn declared.

The instant that Kotal Kahn's thundering voice finished his declaration, Tanner's face went almost completely white. If Kotal Kahn entered into a war with another realm then it would take even more time for the Kahn to complete his part of the bargain. He had to keep the war from starting, at least for the time being. "My lord if I may propose a different option?"

Kotal Kahn immediately turned to look over at Tanner with a stern look but he at least showed that he was willing to hear his subordinate out when he gestured for him to continue "Right now my lord we have no idea that the entire Realm is involved in this action. After all Kano was here as well and we all know that he would never act on Earthrealm's behest, perhaps this is something similar."

The Emperor said nothing, showing that he was at least listening to what the Earthrealmer was saying. Tanner continued "I believe that it would be more prudent to send a group of individuals to investigate the matter, determine whether it was the entire realm that was involved in this attempt or just some splinter faction. Then once we have acquired as much information as possible on our foe, we draw them into an area where we are waiting and eliminate all of them. In fact I will go on this mission myself if need be."

For several long tense seconds, Kotal Kahn was completely silent as he considered this new option. Eventually though he spoke again, "Very well. I will allow you this opportunity. You will take whatever forces you require and carry out your plans. You will bring Mileena here, dead or alive along with all who ally with her."

Tanner had to keep himself from relaxing because he knew that if he screwed this up there would be problems later on down the line. "Yes my lord, it will be done. I only request that Reptile, Erron Black and D'Vorah accompany me, as well as enough funds to hire a mercenary group that I believe will be most useful for our purposes."

Kotal Kahn expression showed that he was quite…disinclined to try and hire mercenaries. Given what had happened with Kano it was clear that he wasn't one to trust people who were seemingly more loyal to money than they were to those above their station. "Before you say 'no' Kotal Kahn let me first say that so long as we pay them on time and don't double cross them, the Wild Hunt never breaks a contract with their employers. I've done business with them before and they are extremely reliable."

Once again the Emperor of Outworld looked in thought before he nodded his head in acquiescence to Tanner's request. The gears in the Earthrealmer's mind were already turning with tactics and strategies to take the fight to Mileena and her new allies. By the time he was done there wouldn't be anything left of this "White Fang" or their allies.

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To be continued.

A/N: so yeah a bunch of you probably have mixed feelings at best about me killing of Rain in the first chapter and at the hands of an OC. Now before anyone grabs the pitchforks and the torches, let me explain. I decided to kill off Rain early because I honestly couldn't find much of a use for him down the line. Especially when the only plot point I could come up with (his being the half-breed son of a god), was taken by two other characters.


	3. First Strike

RWBY Dark Side of Light

Chapter 2

First Strike

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or Mortal Kombat (or another franchise which I will put a disclaimer for at the bottom of this chapter) otherwise this would be canon. I only own the characters that I have created.

A/N: please read and review as it helps me improve as a writer.

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-Remnant, Forever Fall Forest outside of Vale-

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The forests outside of Vale were as varied as they were extensive. Areas like the forest of Forever Fall went on for seemingly countless miles. When viewed from the air both were incredibly scenic and perhaps one of the most beautiful things any eyes could observe. Forever Fall much like its name suggested had numerous trees which had leaves that were always a shade of red. It was an area that many considered to be truly beautiful. At least at first glance.

While from above it may appear as though Forever Fall was beautiful, inside the forest it was anything but. The Creatures of Grimm prowled the forests looking for any possible prey. They were so numerous that going into areas of the forest that weren't properly secured one risked running into the Grimm. However in spite of – or perhaps _because_ of said monsters – the forests of Forever fall were the perfect hiding spot for various, less than legal organizations. Ordinarily most criminals with any sense would avoid areas that were crawling with Grimm like the plague unless they were suicidal or they had an army behind them.

In the case of the White Fang however they did have an army. Granted it wasn't nearly large enough to take any of the Kingdoms but it had more than enough men to do damage through hit-and-run raids. It was something that the White Fang had become very fond of doing as they had increased attacks on SDC Dust convoys to and from Vale for the last few months.

In spite of the dangers that lurked beneath the branches of the forest however, there was still a deceptive calmness throughout the area at almost all times. Today however all that changed as the sounds of gunfire sent the local wildlife scurrying for someplace safer.

Underneath the many trees that covered Forever Fall there was a modestly sized White Fang encampment inside what was once a small walled community that had fallen to the Grimm some years back. For months they had used it as a base to launch hit-and-run attacks on whatever targets their superiors wanted raided.

Now however the situation had become completely reversed. They were the ones now under attack.

When they had first lost contact with one of their outlying patrols, the White Fang had operated under the assumption that there was a simple problem with their communications equipment. After all they had on multiple occasions been forced to use equipment that was more or less jury-rigged with whatever was scrounged up. Therefore it wasn't much of a surprise when they temporarily lost contact with some of their patrols every now and then. Because of this, none of them were expecting a full on assault against their outpost by what were clearly highly professional soldiers.

They obviously weren't from Atlas as they weren't wearing any of the uniforms or weapons that were associated with that particular kingdom. Instead most wore olive drab fatigues, while others wore crimson red outfits but almost all of them wore sinister looking gasmasks or balaclavas. They were also carrying with them a variety of different weapons. Some carried pistols or submachine guns, while others used rifles, shotguns, rocket launchers and even incendiary weapons.

On one of the walls of the makeshift outpost was a young White Fang lieutenant by the name of Turk Onyx. Turk was a dog Faunus that had been with the White Fang ever since Sienna Khan took the reins of the organization from the Belladonnas. Like many of his brothers and sisters in the White Fang, he had joined to get back at the humans who had treated them like yesterday's trash. All things considered, it was a pretty damn satisfying job, especially when he got assigned to the Vale division under Adam Taurus.

Turk took aim at one of the humans with his rifle and pulled the trigger, sending a bullet downrange and striking one of the soldiers who was hiding behind one of the trees in the head, sending him to the ground where he remained motionless. Unfortunately Turk wasn't able to get another shot off at the attackers because one of them aimed a four barreled rocket launcher straight at him and before he could even aim his rifle at him, the enemy soldier fired off a shot.

Turk's eyes widened and he immediately jumped back in an attempt to avoid the rocket that was heading straight towards him. Unfortunately he only managed to take one or two steps in the opposite direction before the rocket impacted the wall's wooden surface. There was a loud boom and then the world was upside down, before becoming right-side up again as he was flung through the air.

Time seemed to slow down as he was brought back down to earth. When he hit the ground the air was quite cleanly knocked out of him with his ears ringing, but that was the least of his worries. With the way he had landed, Turk had both of his legs broken like a pair of twigs and his left shoulder was bent in an unnatural angle, along with the arm it was attached to. Despite this he felt no real pain, but he assumed that was because his adrenaline was still running and eventually the pain would set in.

He could see his White Fang brothers and sisters fighting back against the human attackers on the walls but they were losing ground, quickly. Then there was a loud explosion, and the ringing noises came back with a vengeance. Part of the wall had been blown open with explosives and over the ringing of bells, Turk could hear a strange noise coming from above him. It sounded like blades being swung through the air at high speeds.

The White Fang terrorist looked up and saw a trio of strange looking aircraft. They certainly weren't anything in use by Atlas or any of the other kingdoms that was for certain. Instead of a Bullhead, Manta or one of the newer Makos it was something else. They were roughly the same size as a Manta but instead of having tilt engines attached to the machine there was what looked like blades spinning rapidly, keeping the machines in the air. He wasn't able to wonder what these things were as the chin mounted machine guns on the vehicles opened up on every Faunus that was in sight.

Turk's brothers and sisters in arms were quite literally being chewed to pieces by heavy machinegun fire. Blood, bone and pieces of internal organs flew everywhere as the White Fang were gunned down without any mercy. Eventually though the weapon's fire finally stopped and Turk looked up to see what was going on but noticed that on the sides of each of the craft, two hatches were opened and Turk could make out strange, blue armored figures, each of which had a pair of strange bulky looking blades mounted on each forearm that were in the shape of a claw. Turk couldn't see any of their faces, as they were concealed by insect-like gasmasks.

Then much to Turk's surprise they jumped out of their transports and onto the roofs of the buildings closest to them. Once they touched down they then started jumping again, only this time they were hopping from roof to roof or wall to wall before pouncing on any retreating White Fang they spotted and would either restrain them or just hack them to pieces with their claws.

Their leader however was different. He was clad in crimson armor and unlike his comrades, wasn't wearing a gasmask. Instead he had relatively short hair that left one of his eyes completely covered. Not only that, but he was firing grenades from some kind of device attached to his right wrist. The most disturbing part though, was the laughter. He was cackling like a psychopath as he hopped from one wall to the next slicing the White Fang to pieces or blowing them up with his ranged weapon. It was the laughter of a monster that enjoyed every massacre it took part in.

Then there were a series of ropes that were deployed from the hatches and three men of wildly differing appearances slid down the ropes. One of the men that slid down had a large silver pistol and a pair of curved daggers. His outfit consisted of black military looking fatigues that had a vest that held a variety of equipment on it. The strangest part about him though was that he had short greying hair, signifying his age and yet he still appeared as though he was still in his mid to late twenties.

Another wore an extravagant white trench coat that had strange mistralian designs sewn into it and feathers coming out of the collar of said jacket. Not only that but his blond hair was gelled up into an over-the-top fashion and had a pair of round purple sunglasses. The most notable thing however that was that even from the distance he was, he could see that the man's right leg had been replaced with a prosthetic, similar to the ones he had heard about in Atlas.

The last one was also wearing a trench coat but instead of the flashy over the top outfit that the last one wore, his had a rather plain light brown color. In comparison to the gaudy looking guy, his was much more subdued to say the least. He had grey hair like his other compatriot only it was slicked back with a few locks hanging in front. His eyes were hidden by a pair of round sunglasses that were similar to the guy in the more over-the-top outfit but rather than having purple lenses they were simply black.

It was pretty obvious to Turk that whoever those humans were, they were probably in charge of this massacre. The dog Faunus looked around for anything he could at least try to use as a weapon against these attackers. He may end up dying in the process but he wanted to at the very least have the chance at taking out at least one of the bastards that were killing his brothers and sisters in arms.

He soon spotted another member of the White Fang that was nearby, or what was left of him. The poor bastard had been blown in half by one of the rocket strikes that those monsters must have sent their way during the attack. However he still had his sidearm in his dead hands.

Turk began to crawl towards it but the adrenaline that had flooded through his body earlier was now starting to wear off and the pain was starting to set in. Every time he crawled his way closer, it felt like a hundred red hot knives were being shoved deeper and deeper into his legs and left shoulder. It was pure, unending agony. However in spite of his pain he managed to keep himself from crying out in response. Instead he bit down on his lip hard enough to draw blood as he continued to close the distance between himself and the weapon that would give him a chance to end the ones who had slaughtered so many of his people.

When the pistol was just out of his reach Turk suddenly felt something impact his back. The metaphorical red hot knives that had been buried into his legs and lower back turned into a pain that was far worse. It was a pain that simply couldn't be described in mere words.

Then he heard that laugh, that same sinister, mocking laugh that came from the red armored monster that had been butchering his comrades. He felt a hand grab the back of his head and yank him back slightly and the monster leaned forwards and whispered into his ear.

"Looking for a hero's death?" it asked rhetorically with a mocking chuckle before picking up the pistol that was just out of Turk's reach and dangling it right in front of him tauntingly for a moment or two before tossing it several feet away. Turk pitifully reached for the weapon despite the obvious futility of the action.

"Sorry to disappoint you," the monster declared as he began to grind his knee into Turk's injured back again, eliciting another scream from the Faunus.

Turk wasn't sure when but eventually the madman grew bored with this form of torment and stopped just as soon as one of the men from that strange vehicle walked up to him. It was the one with the grey hair despite the relatively youthful looks. He was looking down at Turk almost contemptuously before he addressed his subordinate "What do we have Garrett?" he asked, his tone curt and to the point.

"A possible prisoner but given his injuries I don't think he'll make it very far without treatment."

The one wearing the black military fatigues looked at Turk contemptuously "Considering we've already captured the leaders of this particular cell, keeping this one alive is little more than a waste of resources." He then turned to look at something that Turk couldn't see "What do you think, Reptile?"

It was then that the air next to the one who was leading the slaughter of his brothers and sisters in arms began to shimmer for a few milliseconds before it coalesced into a humanoid form. The instant that Turk got a look at the now visible form of this 'Reptile' he knew that he had to be looking at some kind of lizard Faunus. What else could this individual possibly be?

"W-why?" Turk managed to gasp out at Reptile who looked down at him with nothing but undisguised disgust and contempt in his eyes but Reptile didn't respond and instead spoke to the leader of the group "Can I finish him?" he asked in a raspy-guttural voice.

The leader of the group gave a shrug and gestured for Garrett to get off of the injured Faunus before giving Reptile some room. Turk was about to demand why one of their own was helping a group of humans when Reptile spat in his face. It only took less than a second for him to realize that it wasn't saliva that had just impacted him. Especially when he felt his face and neck burning horrifically as his skin and eyes began to dissolve.

For several long excruciating seconds Turk couldn't stop screaming until his tongue melted away leaving just a mess of bloody heaving and horrific moans. Less than a second after that, he had completely lost his ability to see anything but then felt a pair of clawed hands grab him by the sides of his head and then pull upwards before feeling nothing at all.

.

* * *

.

The group watched as Reptile ripped off the head of the wounded White Fang trooper and crushed it between his claws. This sent bits of bone, brain, blood and various other liquids to start seeping from between his claws and dribbling onto the ground.

"Was executing him like that really necessary?" asked the leader of Wild Hunt, known to many on Earthrealm simply as "Wild Dog." No one knew anything about him, not his real name, his place of birth, nothing. All anyone knew was that he was a famed mercenary who worked with various less than reputable organizations over the course of his infamous career. The only time he had ever failed in any of the jobs he was hired on was when a certain organization operating under the auspices of the UN became involved in his activities.

Garrett meanwhile was looking at the scene with amusement and maybe even a bit of admiration for the brutality of the act. Randy "The Ripper" Garrett was a former member of armed forces of the now overthrown Mediterranean dictatorship known as the Zagorias Federation. More specifically, he was the leader of Governor General Giorgio Zott's personal assassination squad that he used to hunt down any potential dissidents that might pose a threat to his rule. During the events on Astigos Island where Zott attempted to use the island as a staging area to launch attacks at other Mediterranean nations however, he found himself out of a job when Zott was killed and the invasion army defeated. Not to mention that he was severely injured to the point of near death at the hands of two agents of the same UN organization that Wild Dog fought against for so long.

Reptile meanwhile gave no response to the query, not that the man had expected one. Tanner meanwhile looked right over at Wild Dog "He's from Outworld, they do this kind of thing all the time. You'll get used to it eventually."

Tanner then arched an eyebrow over at Wild Dog's extravagantly dressed apprentice who was currently looking green in the face and said "Is he going to be okay?"

"While Wild Fox is just as much a hardened killer as I am, he's probably not used to seeing such a…colorful way to kill someone."

At that Wild Fox seemingly managed to push down some of his nausea for a moment and looked at his mentor/boss as well as their current employer with an annoyed glance "For the thousandth time, it's Wild _Fang_. Not Fox, _FANG_!" he declared irritably.

Garrett let out a faintly amused chuckle while Tanner just massaged his temples in annoyance with the thumb and index finger of his right hand "And for the thousandth time you're going to have to get used to that new nickname while we're in this Realm because Wild Fang sounds too much like White Fang over the radio. I can't have the men getting confused and risk screwing up a mission."

The only response that Tanner received in response was the sound of teeth being ground together in annoyance. It was a sound that made Garrett start chuckling more loudly and obviously.

Now that that little matter had been dealt with they had some prisoners to deliver to D'Vorah for interrogation. Of course when that happened, they would probably be wishing that they had been butchered in the initial battle.

As for Tanner he pulled out a small recording device and smiled. Now was the time for some psychological warfare. After that he'd probably head to Vale, take in the sights and visit a certain information broker in Vale with Erron Black.

.

* * *

-Remnant, Wildlands outside of Vale-

* * *

.

It had been a little over the week since Mileena's failed attempt to regain her throne and things had not been going well for her since. She had lost several dozen Tarkatans and even more of her new allies during the attempt and had absolutely nothing to show in return for it. For the last several days she had been stewing in a rage over the failed attack. Everyone in her camp knew that in times such as this, it was best to simply leave her alone to vent out her frustrations.

Only a handful had ever managed to calm her in such a way that didn't involve being repeatedly stabbed by her Sais and eventually becoming her next meal. However even now those that were able to do so were keeping their distance from her. For years now she had been fighting against the usurper to regain her rightful throne and last week was perhaps the closest she had ever come to regaining her birthright. At least right before it was snatched away from her yet again!

At the current moment she was pacing back and forth muttering angrily to herself about the failed plan and those that failed her once again. They had all assured her that they would be able to carry out her plan and restore her to the throne. Instead those idiots all failed her, _again_.

Mileena was broken out of her thoughts by the sound of the tent's flaps being opened and a Tarkatan warrior walked inside "My Kahnum, there is a…visitor to see you."

Immediately Mileena grabbed the Tarkatan by the throat and shoved him against one of the support pillars to her tent "Did I not tell you that I wished to be alone you fool?! Did I not tell you what would happen if you disobeyed your Empress' commands?!" she shouted.

The Tarkatan did not struggle for he was not fool enough to do so and instead managed out "But my Kahnum, _They_, are _here_."

Immediately Mileena let go of the warrior, allowing him to start taking in vast gulps of much needed air. However she didn't give him any real time to recover. "Take me to them. _**Now**_!" The Tarkatan gave a quick, respectful bow before leading the deposed empress outside of the tent.

Waiting right outside Mileena's tent was her last remaining Edenian ally, Tanya. She was leaning up against a nearby tree with a somewhat concerned expression on her face. When Mileena spotted her she gestured for the Edenian woman to follow her. If Mileena was going into the Netherrealm then she was going to bring others down with her and it was clear by Tanya's facial expression that she knew this as well.

With no small amount of reluctance, Tanya pushed off from the tree she was leaning against and followed her (sort of) master and their guide into the woods.

After walking a relatively short distance the trio came to a stop in a relatively small clearing. They weren't alone however as four of their new benefactor's servants had appeared to meet them. One was a well-built young man with grey eyes and grey hair that was partially slicked back while unkempt at the front with several bangs coming over his face, but not enough to obstruct his vision. Another was a dark skinned girl with red eyes. She had her light green hair in a bobcut but there were a pair of long locks that went down past her waist. She was slightly shorter than the others and had a pair of what appeared to be pistols strapped to holsters behind her back.

The next member of the group came close to six feet tall or was perhaps slightly taller, and was clad head to toe in black combat armor that looked remarkably similar to what Atlas' own military issued its soldiers. Unlike the Atlas soldiers however, this man's face was completely concealed by a blank, featureless helmet that only had a single red colored slash running diagonally across it. Two automatic pistols were placed inside of holsters on each side of his hip and a greatsword was strapped onto his back. Despite the featurelessness of the mask the man wore, everyone could feel the menace radiating from him like heat from an inferno.

Finally at the head of the group was a woman who was either in her late teens or early twenties. She was what many would consider to be incredibly beautiful. What with her long black hair and golden eyes, curvaceous figure and blood red dress that exposed her long legs and perfectly shaped hips. However her beauty was marred by the particularly enraged scowl that had been sent to the deposed empress of Outworld ever since she came into view.

"Mileena," said the young woman with a tone that showed her displeasure just as much as her facial expression had, especially when she refused to refer to Mileena by her rightful title of 'Empress' or 'Kahnum.'

"I find myself at quite a loss, when you agreed to aid the Queen in her plans here on Remnant in exchange for aid in reclaiming your throne, you swore that you would obey every order she gave? Was this a lie?" she asked.

Mileena began to ground her shark-like teeth together behind her makeshift veil "With Outworld's armies at the Queen's back we could crush this backwater Realm in-" she started but was unable to finish when all of the sudden, the armored warrior that was standing alongside Cinder was suddenly right in front of her and lifted her up by her throat.

"She asked you if you were lying, not what your motivations were for doing something so incredibly stupid!" he declared increasing the pressure around Mileena's neck for several seconds making her start gasping for air. Tanya looked like she was about to go for her bladed tonfas but stopped when she saw the green haired girl aiming her own weapons directly at her as well as the grey haired male smirk and lift one of his legs.

Suddenly there was the sound of fingers snapping. Immediately armored figure roughly let go of Mileena's throat causing her to fall flat on her backside. Cinder looked directly at the armored warrior "Schwarze, do not speak for me and besides, if you choke her out she won't exactly be able to answer any of my questions."

The black knight known as Schwarze backed off from the deposed Kahnum and made his way back to his mistress. When he stood next to Cinder once more the young woman asked again "Now, tell me: did you lie to us?"

Mileena stood up on shaky legs and did her best not to snarl at the young upstart's impudence "No," she said finally. In response Cinder cocked a brow before narrowing her eyes into dangerous slits "Then please explain then, why you went against orders for you to stay under the radar and not bring attention to yourself?"

Resisting the urge to snarl at the gall the girl was showing to the one who was infinitely her better, Mileena responded "If I retook the throne of Outworld, your master would have its armies at its back, and would make the conquest of this backwater realm little more than child's play."

Cinder resisted the urge to start grinding her teeth together in frustration, as well as the nearly all encompassing desire to use her powers to burn Mileena to ashes. "There is a reason for subtlety at this stage in our plans Mileena, and you may very well have mauled them with your impatience!"

Mileena seemed confused by that "What do you mean? The usurper and his forces have no idea where this realm is located and any Tarkatan prisoners would never have betrayed our location to our enemies."

"Well I would say that someone did talk because just a few hours earlier three White Fang outposts in Forever Fall were attacked and destroyed by an unknown group that were most definitely weren't Grimm, Huntsmen or Atlesian soldiers. Now I only have one more question to ask of you. Who was the idiot who gave you this idea? When we first met, I could tell that while you were anxious to get back your throne, you were also hesitant to act openly until now. So what changed?"

Mileena was hesitant to reveal that thanks to certain members of her inner circle's prodding she decided to hire Kano for his services. Both in stealing the amulet and part of her assassination attempt on Kotal Kahn. However she wasn't about to reveal her trump card to her 'allies,' at this point in time.

Tanya noticed her mistress' apprehension towards answering and finally broke her silence in the conversation "It was Rain who suggested that we make the attempt on the usurper's life. He was the one that argued that it would be in everyone's best interests."

While that was partially true, it was also Tanya who was the one who ultimately swayed Mileena to make the attempt. Given that Rain was already dead, the blame could easily be placed on him instead of herself. The look on Cinder's face said that she didn't buy that excuse even before she confirmed it verbally "And now Rain is dead. How convenient for us all."

Cinder then directed her attention back to Mileena "If it were up to me I would simply have you and all of your followers exterminated right here and now for a failure of this magnitude, but the Queen has ordered that you be given one final chance. From here on out you will do absolutely nothing without first being ordered to do so, and we've already informed our allies in the White Fang to ignore any orders that come from you and if they claim that you have been given permission to order them around they will check with Adam first, and he in turn will check with me."

Mileena glared at Cinder, anger evident in her eyes but Cinder wasn't finished "And if you do try anything on your own, know that every single Grimm within a thousand miles will all come crashing down on your little hideaway and slaughter every single one of you. Every. Single. One. Have I made myself as clear as I can possibly _be_?!" She ended with a snarl.

The deposed Empress of Outworld was clearly furious and for a moment or two looked as though she was going to pull her sais out of their sheaths and charge the upstart for speaking down to her like that. She was the rightful Kahnum of Outworld! Fortunately for her own wellbeing though she managed to restrain herself and instead simply nodded.

"Splendid, then this conversation is over," said Cinder as she and her inner circle began to go back into the darkness of the woods that surrounded them.

By the time they vanished, Mileena let out an enraged snarl and looked like she wanted to tear something apart with her bare hands but barely managed to keep herself in check.

When she and her Tarkatan supporters had fled to this gods forsaken backwater after the disastrous battle of the Golden Desert, where she had lost more than half of her entire army it hadn't even been so much as a day before they were surrounded by strange black creatures. At first it appeared as though they were going to attack but then one of them, an orb with tentacles dangling from it approached them and through it a woman's voice spoke to them and after some dialogue, made them an offer that was too good to resist.

Join with the Queen and help her fulfill her desires and she would help Mileena reclaim her rightful throne. The consequences of refusing this generous offer were obvious and given that their army was at less than half-strength and they were unable to open another portal for some time they would be unable to last very long against so many foes. In that situation, the benefits far outweighed any potential drawbacks.

Or at least that was what Mileena had thought at the time. Every day she spent in this backwater of a Realm it was looking more and more like she was becoming less a leader and more of a pawn and she hated it.

But for now she had little choice, she and her loyal followers had nowhere else to go. After all who would dare to take in an army of Tarkatan savages and the deposed Empress of Outworld? However when she regained her throne she would take vengeance on the fools who _dared_ to order her around like some servant!

.

* * *

-Earthrealm, unknown location-

* * *

.

In one of the many mountain ranges of Earthrealm there was a mountain where it snowed almost all-year round. Near the summit of the mountain was a moderately sized temple. It was of Far East Asian architecture and held a kind of timeless feel to it. In the center of the temple was an outdoor arena built from stone. While it was well maintained, it still didn't seem like there had been any inhabitants for a very long time.

In the center of the arena were a pair of warriors. One was garbed in traditional uniform of the Lin Kuei clan of assassins. The only difference however was that he wore no hood with his breath-mask. His black hair was tied up into an ornate ponytail even as his eyes all but glowed a blue that was all but completely white.

The other was garbed in a more modern version of the Shirai-Ryu clan's outfit. On his head was a bandanna with the symbol of a spider and his lower face was concealed by a mask that was reminiscent of a skull. Attached to his right arm gauntlet was a futuristic looking whip that was connected a mechanism mounted on his back.

The two warriors began to circle one another, each gauging their opponent before the Lin Kuei spoke "Shirai-Ryu _Dog_!" he all but spat in disgust as ice began to form up his forearms. His opponent looked at him with barely concealed mockery "Lin-Kuei trash!"

It was then that the Lin Kuei warrior grew a small smile on his face behind his mask "The loser buys drinks." And while he wasn't completely sure of the expression behind his opponent's mask, he was reasonably sure that the Shirai-Ryu was grinning. The two quickly advanced on each other and began to exchange blows as quickly and efficiently as they could, moving faster than the eye could track. When each threw a punch or a kick, the other managed to either block, deflect or outright dodge it.

Eventually both jumped back away from one another in order to gain some distance. The two warriors began circling one another, all the while looking for any crack in their opponent's defenses, something that they could use to their advantage when they next struck. It seemed as though each had found it, when the Shirai-Ryu drew his futuristic looking whip, while a Ji (a spear that was used in ancient china, similar to a halberd) made out of pure ice appeared in his hands.

This time the two ninjas struck at one another almost unmercifully as the two warriors struggled to draw first blood. The Lin Kuei's Ji struck out at the Shirai-Ryu but the latter managed to wrap his whip around the Ji and wrest it from his hands, sending it to the ground where it shattered into a thousand pieces.

The Lin Kuei warrior fell back to a safer distance and used his Cryomancy to bring forth another Ji into his hands even as the Shirai-Ryu retracted his whip in preparation for another strike. Before either could make another attack, a computerized voice filled the arena "Simulation ended."

Soon the mountaintop battlefield began to dissipate like a morning mist and the two warriors were standing in a large, grey room.

The Shirai-Ryu turned to look at the unseen audience, annoyance showing in spite of his mask "Hey! Why'd you stop the sim? We were just about to get to the good part!"

The reply to the two warriors was a mix of snark and partial exasperation "Let's try and keep two of our own from ending up in the field hospital with broken bones this week please." The Shirai-Ryu and the Lin Kuei turned to look at each other.

Oh come on, that happened only once. They weren't going to go that far again…maybe…hopefully…probably.

"Besides the boys upstairs have something for us. Something big."

.

* * *

.

To be continued.

A/N: So yeah I don't own Wild Dog, Wild Fang/Wild Fox or Randy Garret as they are all characters from a video game/arcade series called Time Crisis. I know that they kind of come in out of nowhere but there is a good reason for why I put them in. I needed Tanner to have minions that could go around and could possibly be inconspicuous because people from Outworld stand out quite a bit. So I decided to take a page form Netherrealm studios and put in a guest character of sorts that would fit into both settings as Wild Dog not only has a minigun for an arm but it can also transform into other weapons, which makes him work for both settings. Plus he usually ends up playing second in command to the true final boss in the Time Crisis games.

Also I hope you don't mind the lack of RWBY and JNPR in this chapter but don't worry RWBY is going to be appearing next chapter.


	4. New Developments

RWBY Dark Side of Light

Chapter 3

New Developments

Disclaimer: I don't own Mortal Kombat, RWBY or Time Crisis as they are all owned by their respective copyright owners.

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* * *

-Vale, Beacon Academy, Headmaster Ozpin's Office-

* * *

.

The main courtyard for Beacon Academy was absolutely bustling with people, with Bullhead and Airships delivering more and more every hour. The Vytal Festival was less than a month away and already more and more students were showing up to the point where there were some at Beacon who were wondering if they would even have enough room to house all of the students that were coming in. Of course it wasn't only students that were arriving at Beacon Academy. There were a number of Atlesian military airships that were flying around the area. Apparently General Ironwood, the headmaster of Atlas Academy had not only decided to travel with his students, but also brought several platoons worth of soldiers with him.

In the headmaster's office two individuals were watching three Atlesian military airships deposit their cargo of visiting Huntsman and Huntresses in training, while several smaller Mako class dropships flew escort (A/N: I couldn't find any information as to what the Atlesian dropships were called so I'm just going to call them Makos). The first was a man who appeared to be middle-aged, with tousled hair and brown eyes with a small, round pair glasses resting on his nose. Right next to him was a woman in her early to mid-thirties. She had blonde hair that was done up into a neat bun but still allowed some curls to hang on the right side of her face. Her dark green eyes were set in a stern expression behind her thin ovular glasses.

"Well it seems that Ironwood certainly loves bringing his work wherever he travels." She grumbled at the spectacle that was taking place right in front of her. Ozpin took a sip from his mug of cocoa and said "Well, running an academy _and_ a military makes him a very busy man, but those are a bit of an eyesore."

Glynda looked like she wanted to continue but before she could make mention that Ozpin's comment was more than just a little bit of an understatement there was a small beeping noise coming from his desk. The headmaster of Beacon Academy walked over to it and saw that someone was requesting entry into his office. Given what was going on outside, it was very obvious who was awaiting permission to enter.

Sure enough the instant that Ozpin said "Come in," a very familiar individual walked through the door. It was James Ironwood, headmaster of Atlas Academy and General of the Atlesian military. He was well dressed in a white overcoat with a grey undercoat, a black sweater and red necktie. Conspicuously enough Ironwood also had a white glove that covered his right hand but not one over his left. The man's hair was black with more than just a bit of grey on the sides of his head. His dark blue eyes were focused and hard but most interestingly of all was the fact that there was a small strip of metal that was implanted in his forehead just above his right eyebrow.

Almost immediately upon entering, Ironwood gave his fellow headmaster a friendly smile "Ozpin," he said in relatively warm greeting. Ozpin gave the good General a respectful nod "General," he said in a slightly more curt tone.

Ironwood however never lost his smile "Please, drop the formalities," he insisted as the two walked up to one another and shook hands. "It's good to see you again Oz. It's been too long." Ironwood then turned his head to look at the approaching Glynda Goodwitch and his smile became even more pronounced "Glynda, it has certainly been far too long."

At that Glynda looked directly at the general and gave a saccharine smile that looked utterly out of place when compared to the complete and utter annoyance that was in her eyes "Oh, James." She said, her voice filled with nothing but sarcastic cheeriness before her expression shifted into one that expressed deadpan annoyance as she turned to look over at her boss "I'll be outside."

Once Glynda had exited the room, Ironwood turned his head back to his friend and sighed almost dejectedly "Well, it seems she hasn't changed a bit."

Ozpin ignored the comment and instead decided to get straight to business "So what brings you all the way from Atlas. After all, headmasters don't normally travel with their students for the Vytal Festival." Ozpin reached for a second cup of coffee and handed it to the general who took a few sips from it.

"Well I do love Vale this time of year. Besides, with you hosting I thought that this might be a good opportunity for us to catch up on a few things."

Ozpin gave a small smile as he took his seat behind his desk "I can certainly appreciate quality time between friends. However that small fleet outside of my window has me somewhat concerned."

Ironwood looked at his fellow Headmaster with a look of mild confusion "Well, concern is what brought me here," he explained. Ozpin took another large gulp of his coffee and sent a questioning gaze to the General "I understand that travel between Kingdoms has become increasingly, _difficult_ as of late but-"

Ozpin wasn't able to finish that sentence as the General gave Ozpin an almost apologetic look as he continued "Oz, you and I both know why I brought those men."

Once again Ozpin drank from his mug and looked somewhat disheartened by the fact that it was almost completely empty "We are at a time of peace," he said before gesturing to the sight that was present at the disembarkation docks "Shows of power like this, are just going to give off the wrong impression."

Ironwood set his mug down and put both of his hands on the table "But if what Qrow said is true then-" this time it was Ozpin who didn't give Ironwood a chance to finish as he held up an index finger to interject. "If what Qrow said is true, then we will handle it. Tactfully. It's the Vytal Festival, a time to celebrate unity and peace. So I suggest you don't' scare people by transporting hundreds of soldiers halfway across the continent." Judging by the expression on Ironwood's face, that clearly wasn't what he wanted to hear.

"I'm just being cautious," he defended.

"As am I. Which is why we will continue to train the best Huntsmen and Huntresses we can."

"Believe me I am," Ironwood insisted before he started to make his way towards the office's exit. However before he could make it there completely he turned slightly to look Ozpin directly in the eye and asked "But ask yourself this. Do you really believe your children can win a war?" Without waiting for an answer he turned back and continued on his way out.

Once the door fully closed behind the General, Ozpin steepled his fingers together and let out a sigh. "I hope that they never have to."

For a time Ozpin just sat there and pondered recent events and what he could do to keep the fallout from such events from getting any worse. It was true that they were living in a time of peace and relative prosperity, on the surface at least. But once one looked beneath it, people would realize that the world was as it always was, balancing on a razor's edge.

Ozpin was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard his scroll start chiming, indicating that a text message had been sent directly to him. Curious, the headmaster of Beacon Academy opened the message and saw message from a certain dusty old crow.

"**Found something, I'll be at Beacon soon"**

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* * *

-Vale, Commercial District-

* * *

.

The break after the first semester at Beacon had come and gone and while it hadn't been the best break ever as Ruby had hoped, they still had some fun together as friends. Especially with that little food-fight that they all got into the day before. Thank the gods that Ozpin had showed up or who knew just how bad the detentions from Professor Goodwitch would have ended up being.

Ruby all but shuddered when she remembered the look on the Professor's face that morning. It wasn't the same stern yet kinda scary and kinda fair expression she had when Ruby first met Ozpin and was invited to Beacon two years early. No it was instead more along the lines of someone who was stern, angry, and barely holding back the mind numbing rage at their students. Glynda was always kind of scary but in that moment, she was truly terrifying.

The red hooded huntress in training pushed those thoughts from her head and continued to walk down the crowded streets of Vale along with the rest of her team. With the Vytal Festival getting closer and closer every day, more tourists were showing up but more importantly, more Huntsmen and Huntresses in training. This meant that there were sales on weapons, equipment and various parts at almost every shop that specialized in selling items that Huntsmen required for their jobs.

She had first heard about the sales from her sister Yang, who just a few hours ago had asked why she hadn't decided to go on a shopping spree now that just about everything related to Huntsmen and Huntresses was on sale. Yang, her big sister –and current candidate for best sister in the world- let her know of a golden opportunity to make sure that she and the rest of her team had to improve their weapons or as Weiss wanted (but still denied), a chance to scope out some of the competition for the Vytal Festival.

As the group continued to make their way towards some of the weapon stores that were having their sales, it was at that point that Blake looked over at the team's cloaked leader and said "You do realize that with all the Huntsmen and Huntresses here for the festival it's likely that a lot of the stores are going to be picked over right?"

"Nope," Ruby bluntly stated. Blake looked at her friend and said "But there are hundreds of hunters here and-"

"Nope."

"Are you even listening?"

"Nope,"

"Wait, are you s-"

Blake didn't get a chance to finish as her team leader started to erupt into childish giggles before she stopped walking and turned around to look right at Blake, a huge smile on her face "Sure it's unlikely that we'll find _exactly_ what we're looking for but if nothing else, walking around and having some fun."

The disguised Faunus resisted the urge to sigh. They didn't have time for shopping or sightseeing; Torchwick and the rest of the White Fang were still out there. Sure Blake, Sun and the rest of Team RWBY had managed to stop the massive theft of Dust at the docks but that still wasn't enough. That smug bastard was still out there and they were just going to sit around and do absolutely nothing about it. Gods only knew what Torchwick and the White Fang were planning on doing with that amount of Dust but whatever it was it couldn't be anything good.

Still though it didn't look like she was about to get out of this anytime soon. If she did try to ditch the group and go off on her own then eventually they would find her and Ruby would give her the 'look' which was half sadness, half disappointment.

All in all whenever Ruby pulled that look on someone, they always felt as though they had just kicked a kitten. Blake didn't know if Ruby knew she was capable of that but somehow, Blake wouldn't put it past her. Behind her cheerful demeanor and…enthusiasm when it came to weapons, Ruby came up with some pretty good ideas when it came to leading their team.

"This is still boring and pointless though," Blake muttered to herself. Why didn't they see that finding and stopping Torchwick and the White Fang was far more important than any asinine shopping trip-

"Excuse me!" a voice called out, driving Blake's thoughts right out of her head. The members of team RWBY turned around to see a man that was walking towards them.

The man who had just gotten their attention had short greying hair but other than that seemed relatively young. It was something odd and Blake took a note of it. He had a small smile on his face and was wearing what appeared to be makeshift combat armor, with a couple of bandoliers slung over his shoulder that contained ammo. She also noticed that underneath the jacket he was wearing he had a rather large and fearsome looking pistol on a holster. Sure it wasn't unsurprising to see such armed individuals in Vale during this time as it was the Vytal Festival. Thousands of people including many Huntsmen came from all over the world to take part in the festivities. It came as no surprise that some of them would come armed as there were several armed Huntsmen in the area.

The man with the strange greying hair gave team RWBY a friendly smile or at least he tried. To Blake this man seemed, off. If that made any sense. He reminded her of some of the older guard in the White Fang, ones who had seen too much during the Faunus Rights Revolution and were haunted by it. Several of whom had left the White Fang after they started to turn to more extreme measures, not wanting to go back to the war again.

Eventually it was Weiss who spoke first "Can we help you?" Weiss asked.

The greying haired man kept his smile up "Yes, I haven't been to Vale in quite some time and I was wondering if you could give me some directions. You see I was going to meet up with a couple of friends at a local club but I've been having quite a bit of trouble finding it."

Ruby and her team looked at one another for a second or two before the youngest of the group spoke up "Sure I guess. Where are you headed?" she asked.

The grey haired man then said "My buddy said he was going to meet us at the 'Three Bears' but I'm not entirely sure where it is as his directions were, for lack of better words completely awful. Would you by chance know how to find it?" There was a brief pause as the four huntresses in training looked at one another before Yang got a big grin on her face.

"Oh yeah, I know exactly where it is," with the grin on her face Ruby more than just suspected that Yang had probably pulled something at the Three Bears.

Blake however looked at the man and asked "So who are you exactly, a Huntsman?" Her tone was indicating that she was at least somewhat suspicious about the three strange men. Though given her background it was more than understandable that she had some trust issues.

The individual in front of them just gave a friendly smile as he responded "Yep, the name's Tanner. My friends and I figured that with the Vytal Festival coming up we'd see if there was any room for guys like us looking for work here. With so many people in one place we thought that it would probably be a good idea to kill a few monsters."

Ah the Grimm, that would make a lot of sense for more hunters to arrive in Vale. Honestly it was something that Blake should have expected, but still there was something that just didn't seem right. Maybe it was her past experience with Adam and the rest of the White Fang talking but it felt as though there was something 'off' about this man.

"So, you mind if we show you where it is?" asked Yang who still had that grin on her face that told Blake that she and maybe Weiss were the only ones who had concerns in regards to spending time with a strange man that they had only just met.

The man simply held his left hand out in a "slow down" type of gesture, "While I appreciate your eagerness to help, I really only need some directions."

Weiss looked as though she was about to get out her scroll and look up said directions when she heard Ruby speak up again. "No, no it's no problem. Right?" she asked seemingly innocently while looking at her friends.

Personally Weiss didn't really have any issue with giving the fellow information or making sure he arrived at his destination, it wasn't as though they had anything that was really pressing going on so she was fine with it. The heiress nodded while Blake simply shrugged, knowing that at this point no matter how much of a fuss she pulled, it wouldn't have mattered. Besides they were already out and about might as well do something while out in Vale.

The three others in team RWBY gave their own affirmative answers and the quartet began to lead the man towards his destination.

A few minutes in however Ruby piped up once again "So, Tanner." She started trying to fill in the silence, "I don't think I've seen you in Vale before, you come here often?"

Tanner cocked an eyebrow but he decided to indulge the girl "Unfortunately no. I mostly do my work outside of the cities. This is actually really my first time in Vale, and judging by your friend's reaction when I mentioned that club I take it the Three Bears isn't an establishment to conduct business?"

Yang just grinned at that last comment "Oh, It's more of a place to…party, rather than discuss business."

At that Ruby let out a small sigh. If _that_ wasn't an admission that Yang had done something crazy at that club then she wasn't sure what was. The guy they were helping find his way however seemed to have more than an inkling of what she was talking about if the way he arched his eyebrow was any indication "So I've heard. Judging by your tone, it would seem as though you've had something of a 'party' there yourself."

Yang's grin went just a little bit wider at that "_Maybe_…" she trailed off leaving everyone to draw their own conclusions. However Tanner simply quirked a brow before shaking his head "Somehow I get the feeling I really don't want to know."

Judging by the man's tone he almost seemed amused, perhaps even nostalgic. For a moment or two he just kept silent, as though reliving a memory long since passed but that look vanished and he addressed them again "So I take it that you are all students of Beacon then or are you here visiting here too?"

Ruby shook her head "No, we're all students from Beacon." She then started to look…twitchy, especially when she spotted his weapon and couldn't really help herself as she tried to get a better look at it. Tanner looked at her with a cocked brow "Is there something you wanted to ask me?"

Almost immediately Ruby erupted into a barrage of questions "What kind of pistol is that? It's huge! What does it fire? Does it have a secondary form? What other weapons do you have?!" She spoke so quickly that everyone around her honestly couldn't keep up with how fast the words came out of her mouth.

Yang looked at her sister with an amused expression and seemed to be fighting back snickers judging by how her shoulders shook and how the fact she had her hands over her mouth. Weiss and Blake meanwhile simply looked as though they had seen this sort of thing several times before.

Tanner blinked, barely understanding a word that had come out of the little reaper's mouth "I'm sorry I didn't really catch that."

Immediately Ruby's cheeks turned the color of her namesake and she began pushing her two index fingers together all the while averting her face from his gaze in embarrassment "S-sorry I kinda have this thing when it comes to weapons."

Their new acquaintance just shrugged almost nonchalantly "Everyone needs a hobby I guess." He then gave another friendly smile "What do you want to know about it?" He asked.

At that moment, Tanner swore he saw Ruby's eyes start sparkling, and wondered just what in the hell he had unleashed. "Everything!" she all but squealed in a strange high pitched voice.

Tanner looked over at the Ruby's friends for some kind of answer but he only received looks that told him that it was probably best to just go along with what the girl wanted. "Okay…the weapon is called a Desert Eagle, it's a pistol that fires high powered rounds at high velocity. The bullets can punch through most body armor like paper and seven rounds in a standard clip but I've managed to acquire some clips with expanded capacity. The only problem with the Eagle is that it has one hell of a recoil, earning it the nickname: the hand cannon."

Immediately Ruby looked at her sister, her eyes still sparkling "'The Hand Cannon!'" she repeated to which Yang just patted the top of her head affectionately. Soon though Ruby managed to regain control over herself somewhat before asking another important question "What about the recoil? I mean a weapon like that would probably have a lot of recoil whenever it fired."

At that Tanner smiled, "An excellent point, it takes quite a bit to deal with the recoil but I've added a compensator to the weapon's barrel so it is easier to aim and fire multiple times without having to deal with as much kick." At that Ruby seemed to have stars in her eyes "Okay where and how can I get one of those?" she asked almost begging.

Tanner seemed to think on the answer for a moment, still somewhat unnerved that Ruby could be so…into weapons "I'm sorry to say that most Desert Eagles are rather difficult to find, as the company that created them only made a handful because they were so expensive, I got mine from a second hand source and had to modify it very extensively in order to make it work properly. Aside from some of the frame, it's not really like the original models, and I'm afraid this one isn't for sale."

Ruby immediately deflated at that "Ah, phooey." However she didn't seem to be down for long as her face took on its bubbly expression once again "Still though at least I got a chance to see a new weapon!"

Tanner chuckled at the girl for a moment or two before he asked "So just out of curiosity, what made you decide to become huntress?"

Ruby immediately beamed at the question "Well, I wanted to be a hero!" she blurted out before her cheerful expression changed. Usually when people who heard her say she wanted to be a hero, they clearly thought it was childish but it was what she always wanted ever since…ever since mom…

However the guy they were showing around didn't seem dismissive of her reason to become a huntress as childish. In fact he seemed concerned, horrified even. While he quickly managed to compose himself everyone had clearly seen the look on his face, even as he tried to shake it off.

By chance or fate, that was the moment that Tanner saw the club that he was meeting his friends at in the distance. "Looks like we're here," he said softly, not eager to answer any of the uncomfortable questions that may arise given his reaction.

However he was unable to keep his facial expression from changing one last time. His expression changed to that of one that was both wistful and full of regrets. It was the look of someone who had lost something or someone and had for a moment been taken back to the past momentarily to relive a memory that they had once. It was a look that Ruby and Yang had seen before on their father and uncle's faces several times.

"Well, good luck to you kid, and stay alive. If not for yourself, then for everyone you care about."

Not giving the girls a chance to respond, Tanner made his way into the club.

Ruby and the others however each had very confused expressions on their faces. "Ooooookay," said Yang her brows arched and a questioning look on her face. "Anyone have any idea what that was about?"

Ruby shrugged, "Maybe it was his way of saying goodbye?"

Blake however seemed to find it more than just a little bit suspicious "Weird way of saying goodbye," she muttered. Weiss just sighed, annoyed with Blake's seeming paranoia. "Come on everyone let's just get going."

With that team RWBY set out once again, although one particular member couldn't help but dwell on the final words that were said to her.

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* * *

-Vale, Beacon Academy, Headmaster Ozpin's office-

* * *

.

It had only been a couple of hours since Ozpin had received that message from Qrow and it was actually pretty surprising when he heard a tapping noise coming from one of the windows. The headmaster of Beacon turned and saw that there was a black crow fluttering about one of the windows tapping on the glass every few seconds. Ozpin cocked a brow before walking over to the window where the bird was fluttering about.

When he was close enough, Ozpin opened the window and allowed the bird to fly into the office and it quickly morphed into a man who clearly didn't care much about being presentable and also smelt of alcohol. Ozpin looked at his agent "So you said that you had found some-"

Qrow held up his index finger as he fished out his flask and began to drink vigorously from it. Ozpin resisted the urge to sigh and instead waited for the man to finish his swig. Eventually Qrow took the flask from his lips and let out a satisfied "ah" before attaching it back to his belt.

"You said that you found something."

Qrow nodded "Yeah, I was on my way back from Mistral cuz I got some info that our mutual _friend _may have come into Vale and I came across something really screwed up." Qrow looked like he was about to take another swig out of his flask but managed to restrain himself.

"There was an old rundown settlement that the White Fang had turned into an outpost, I found out about and figured that it might be somewhere I can find some more info. Unfortunately someone else had already been there and they had torn it and everyone inside to pieces, literally."

Ozpin leaned in on his seat and asked "The Grimm?"

Qrow shook his head "At first I thought that with some of the bodies but the Grimm don't line people up against a wall and gun them down, nor do they make very liberal use of high explosives."

"A strike team from one of the other Kingdoms, or someone hired by the SDC."

"Nah, it was too brutal, _way_ too brutal. I not a big fan on how Jimmy and his boys do things but they never committed any war crime level stuff and as much of a bastard as Ice Queen's daddy is I don't think he'd go to this extreme to get rid of the White Fang." Qrow pulled out a blood stained scroll from his back pocket and placed it on Ozpin's desk, causing some of the less dry blood to partially stain it. It was little things like that that reminded Ozpin that Qrow's semblance was _always_ on.

"I found _this little fella_ in a room in a room in one of the buildings, apparently whoever was there had decided to use it as a torture chamber for some of the prisoners that they _did _take. All the info on it was wiped except for a single audio file."

Qrow punched in a few commands on a scroll and someone's voice, presumably the one responsible for what happened to the White Fang, came through "Dear Adam, when we finally meet, please remind me to ask you what exactly made these men and women so loyal. My first assumption was that it was fear of a slow death. So I decided to test that theory on your friends here, and while it's impossible to prove a negative several hours against what I put them through makes a pretty compelling case. If by some miracle someone else manages to pick this up, maybe some law enforcement from Vale, a stray Hunter, or even Ozpin or James Ironwood themselves, I have one thing to say to you. Stay. Out. Of. My. Way. My men and I don't discriminate between those that we hunt and those stupid enough to get in our way. So I strongly suggest that you stay out of it."

Well that was certainly something and Ozpin knew exactly how badly that Ironwood was going to take all of this. He would likely want to launch an investigation and that could potentially make an already complicated situation even more so. But still he was going to get the information eventually anyways and they would need to be ready to make sure he didn't do anything too…rash.

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* * *

-Earthrealm, Special Forces Headquarters, Briefing Room-

* * *

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The briefing room for Earthrealm's Special Forces was much like any other briefing room in most modern day militaries, it was built not for creature comfort but for efficiency and as such, many were not liking the extremely uncomfortable chairs they were forced into. In front of the group was General Sonya Blade, the head of the US military's Special Forces. She wore blue colored combat fatigues that had markings that signified her rank on her shoulders. Her hair was done up into a ponytail braid and her eyes radiated focus.

The group she and two others were addressing was a…unique one. Although there were several members of the United States Special Forces in attendance there were also several that weren't from that particular organization. Among the most notable Special Forces officers there was Lieutenant Cassie Cage, Sonya Blade's daughter, she took after her mother in most of her looks but had her father's personality through and through.

Another was Sergeant Jaquelin "Jacqui" Briggs. She had dark skin, and her black hair was in a cornrow style. Her father was Jackson "Jax" Briggs a retired military officer and Sonya's former commanding officer twenty years ago. Both she and Cassie were both eighteen years old and had been friends since childhood.

The third was a new transfer, a Corporal by the name of Alex Stone. Alex's pitch black hair was closely cropped in order to keep it at regulation length and had brown eyes. Though he hadn't been at SF for very long, he had been noted to be rather eager to prove himself.

The last one who was sort of part of Special Forces was Johnny Cage, the father of Cassie Cage and ex-husband of Sonya Blade. Johnny was once an egomaniac of a Hollywood actor who found himself as part of the Mortal Kombat tournament after his agent advised him to go there in an attempt to boost his nosediving popularity. Of course he got far more than he bargained for as he found himself as one of Raiden's champions. He was one of those who barely survived the war with Shao Kahn and ensuing Neatherrealm war two years later.

Johnny had come a long way since the tournament. He wasn't nearly as egomaniacal and self-centered and had become a caring and responsible father towards his daughter. Many would describe him as the uncle they never had that was always willing to help them out but at the same time was full of too many pop culture references and terrible jokes.

There were of course those that weren't part of the SF in attendance. First and foremost were those that represented the Lin Kuei and the Shirai-Ryu. Both were clans of assassins that had an intense and very hate filled rivalry with one another that went back centuries. Fortunately though in recent years, both clans had undergone something of a reformation and the new Grandmasters of both clans decided that it would be better to…put aside old grudges, especially in the event that another attack on Earthrealm occurred.

The Lin Kuei's representative was a warrior known only by the code name of Glacier. He had repeatedly refused to reveal his real name due to an old tradition of the Lin Kuei to never speak their true names to outsiders. Unfortunately the point was rather moot considering that now everyone knew the name of the Lin Kuei's current Grandmaster, Kuai Liang aka Sub-Zero. So it seemed as though Glacier was simply trying to keep old traditions alive.

Behind his mask Glacier was a young man of Asian descent and was roughly nineteen or twenty years of age and had kept his black hair in a relatively simple bun. His most distinct features however were his eyes, they were a crystal blue that almost seemed to be glowing. To those that knew, it was a symbol of his being a cryomancer. Cryomancers were individuals with the ability to shape and control ice through the manipulation of the moisture in the air around their bodies.

The representative from the Shirai-Ryu was another young man roughly the same age as Glacier, but unlike Glacier, Takashi Takeda always went by his real name. Takashi had shorter black hair than Glacier and kept a bandanna around his forehead with the Shirai-Ryu's insignia on it. There were many in the unit who found that of the two ninjas, Takashi was the one who was much easier to approach given his more laid-back personality, in contrast to the rather…stoic demeanor of his foster father, the Shirai-Ryu's current Grandmaster: Hanzo Hizashi or Scorpion as he used to be called.

The next was a representative from the White Lotus Society, a sect of the Shaolin Monks cofounded by the Outworlder Bo Rai Cho and Raiden centuries ago to be defenders of Earthrealm. This one went by the name of Kung Jin and was the cousin of one of Raiden's fallen champions during the war against Shao Kahn, Kung Lao.

Kung Jin was, as his name suggested of Chinese descent. He had long black hair that was done up into a ponytail and wore the traditional garbs of a member of the White Lotus although he also had a metal headpiece that had a golden color on his head. It traveled down towards the chin in sharp edges.

Then there were those from an agency under the auspices of the UN. Three agents of the VSSE (Vital Situation Swift Execution) were in attendance. Wesley Lambert and Alan Dunaway, two operatives of the VSSE. Wesley Lambert was in his mid-twenties and had short blonde hair and blue eyes while his colleague Alan was of the same age but his had had mid-length slicked back brown hair and had a pair of sunglasses mounted over his forehead.

Just a few months ago the pair had all but singlehandedly thwarted the insane dictator of the Zagorias Federation from taking control over a Mediterranean island and using it as a staging area to attack a rival Mediterranean nation called Lukano. The only problem however was that when NATO arrived to dismantle the missiles that the Zagorias army had set up, they found that the chemical warheads that the missiles were supposed to have been armed with were gone.

Now just about every single intelligence agency on the planet was scrambling to find out just where in the hell those chemical weapons had gone.

The fact that they were here in the briefing suggested that whatever this new mission was, it probably had something to do with the missing chemical weapons. Especially since one of their higher ranking members was also in attendance, an older fellow who was wearing what appeared to be a business suit. He a man in his fifties and his hair was greying and starting to thin but he had the air of someone who had seen many things in his life and as a result wasn't nearly as effected by them.

The last one in the group was the Thunder God Raiden. Although as a god, Raiden generally formless and ethereal he was able to take the form of a middle aged man wearing a predominantly white robes and a blue vest. His face was partially obscured by a straw hat but one could still make out his glowing blue eyes, signifying his ethereal origins.

The first one to speak to the group was General Blade "I'm sure you're all wondering why you've all been gathered as training was scheduled to continue for another week. I'm also sure you're wondering who our guests are, Well, I'm here to tell you that training has been canceled for the foreseeable future. This unit will be undergoing what could very well turn into a long term mission."

That caught everyone's attention as everyone save the VSSE operatives started to look at one another, as if trying to gauge if one of their number had more information on what was going on than the others. Everyone seemed completely clueless. The general then elaborated further "Just a few days ago, Ambassador Li Mei from Outworld contacted gave a rather disturbing report. Apparently the deposed Kahnum Mileena had just made an attempt on Kotal Kahn's life, and she apparently had some assistance from some new allies."

The screen behind the general changed from completely blank to that of a corpse. A corpse with animalistic features, more specifically a pair of dog ears on his head. Immediately upon seeing the body Johnny cocked an eyebrow behind his sunglasses and asked what many were already thinking "So Mileena's got anime cosplayers working for her now? I knew she was desperate but this is a bit much."

No one made any real response to that except for Cassie who gave a small snicker much to her father's delight. His ex-wife however, simply sighed and massaged her temples. "Cage, could you please just keep the jokes to a minimum for right now?"

Johnny held up his hands in mock surrender but that didn't mean that he wouldn't try again later if he saw a perfect opportunity. The general then continued to get right back to the point and explained how this group was apparently known as the White Fang and they came from a Realm known as Remnant. Apparently it was one that was so remote, that even Raiden was unfamiliar with it.

Of course there were those who were wondering what in the hell any of this had to do with what they were being briefed on. So Mileena had got her hands on a few new allies, so what? She had just made a failed attempt on Kotal Kahn's life apparently not even lightly wounding him during the attempt. To make matters even better for Emperor Kotal, apparently she had not only lost even more of her remaining Tarkatans as a result but also one of her remaining lieutenants. True Mileena might have managed to escape with her life but it was likely that they were in the process of tracking the psychotic bitch down. She was living on borrowed time at best and if her allies had any sense, they would sell her out the first chance they got.

It was clear that Sonya knew the unasked questions on everyone's lips "This is very important due to the fact that during this little assassination Mileena attempted to use an amulet to kill Kotal Kahn. The description of which perfectly matches Shinnok's amulet."

That got everyone's attention, for the last twenty years Shinnok had been trapped within his own amulet ever since his failed invasion of Earthrealm. It was the fallen Elder God's most powerful weapon and even if the amulet was made only to work at its full potential when Shinnok wielded it, it was still an extraordinarily dangerous piece of jewelry.

Knowing the full implications of this, every single person in the briefing room had about a billion questions they wanted to ask. Mainly how in the hell did Mileena get her grubby little paws on a Shinnok's amulet when it was supposed to be secured in what was quite possibly the most secure military facility in Earthrealm?!

It was at that point that Raiden spoke up "I confirmed that the amulet that is currently in SF's possession was a fake, a well-constructed fake but there was no hiding the fact that it possessed none of the power that the original has."

And everyone knew that the only one who was both crazy and had the balls to pull off such a heist was Kano.

It was at that point that Alex raised his hand and asked that everyone had on their lips but was afraid to ask, especially when the answer might be something that none of them wanted to hear. "Lord Raiden, what exactly are the odds Shinnok gets released if someone decides to do something stupid with it?"

That was something that no sane individual would want to see happen. The amount of destruction that Shinnok caused when he was running around was insane. It took the combined armies of Earthrealm and Outworld to start pushing him back and even when that happened he was still able to launch an effective assault on the Jinsei and came within a hair's breadth away from corrupting it.

"I don't know," said Raiden "This has never happened before. Shinnok may remain trapped within his amulet, but at the same time he may find a way out if it is used repeatedly. This is one of the reasons why it was decided that Shinnok's amulet would not be destroyed, we had no way of knowing whether or not destroying the amulet would release him."

Great. So not only did they have to find an amulet that contained a psychotic Elder God, they had to find it before someone inadvertently let the bastard out. Fortunately, Raiden went on to explain that only Quan Chi had the necessary spells and incantations to properly let him out and it was unlikely that even someone as Mileena would be psychotic enough to try and be reckless with something that contained someone as powerful as Shinnok.

It was at that point that General Blade spoke up again "You'll have multiple objectives on this mission. You are to retrieve Shinnok's amulet and bring it back to Earthrealm, period. At the same time there are a list of targets that you will be required to either apprehend or terminate; Mileena and her inner circle are at the top of the list.

It is also imperative that unless you receive prior permission directly from command you are _not_ to let the indigenous population know that you are from another Realm. The people of Remnant have no knowledge whatsoever of the wider realms and there would be a shitstorm of problems if they found out about us through a military action. There are numerous reasons for this and right at the top of the list are the Grimm."

Sonya went on to explain that the Creatures of Grimm or just Grimm were entities that were attracted to negative emotion, hate, anger, fear etcetera. If the people of Remnant were as ignorant of the wider Realms as they seemed, then finding out about their place in the universe would have caused them a lot of problems, especially if it was done poorly. She also went on to inform the group that most of the information was gathered through hacking into Remnant's version of the internet, the Cross Continental Transmit System or CCT as it was more commonly called. The VSSE representative gave a small chuckle and muttered something about how the CCT was "easier to hack into than an I-phone."

With that having been done, Sonya continued "During your mission none of you will be wearing SF or VSSE uniforms, instead you will all be working undercover as a PMC unit called Nimbus Security Solutions. Officially Nimbus Security Solutions or NSS is a rising star in Remnant, according to the CCT webpage we created. They are a private organization that takes jobs to eliminate Grimm, safeguard against bandits, that kind of thing. As far as the general population is concerned, Nimbus has mostly been working in relatively remote areas but has been making inroads towards the primary cities in this Realm. As for our Shaolin, Shirai-Ryu and Lin Kuei representatives you won't be part of NSS, you'll be part of your own reclusive groups that have been fighting Grimm but now want to step out into the spotlight by working with Nimbus. If anyone in a position of authority asks why you are in the area, you are allowed to disclose that you are on a mission from a client about retrieving stolen property from a weapons company."

At that point General Blade stepped to the side of the stage and finally the VSSE representative took the helm "Kotal Kahn has also given us information that his new attack dog, a former member of the United States Special Forces by the name of Michael Tanner is in the area with several Outworld forces along with a mercenary group called Wild Hunt. Apparently they are after Mileena and her allies as well." A picture of Michael Tanner was brought up and several individuals in SF immediately recognized him. Johnny Cage looked at the picture and seemed particularly depressed with the list that was right next to it.

**Interpol's Most Wanted: **

**Tanner, Michael, J.**

**Former United States Special Forces Lieutenant**

**Crimes: **

**Treason against the United States Government**

**Theft of Military property**

**Usage of Chemical Weapons**

**Execution of surrendering soldiers**

**Torture of prisoners of war**

**Considered armed and extremely dangerous.**

"Former Lieutenant Michael Tanner has been responsible for most of the recent victories against Mileena and as you can see here, has committed more than just his fair share of atrocities in the process. The UN is currently seeking an extradition to have him sent back to Earthrealm to stand trial but Kotal Kahn has made it clear that's not going to happen and that if we attempt to capture or kill him, he'll consider it a breach of the Reiko Accords and a declaration of war. I recommend you familiarize yourself Tanner's file because it is likely you may encounter him during the mission."

"For those who are unaware Wild Hunt is essentially an organization of terrorists-for-hire. It is comprised of various criminals, former disgraced military personnel from various nations and most recently deserters from the now dissolved Zagorias Federation Armed Forces."

Two picture came up on the wall behind the representative, one was a slightly older man while the other was a man who seemed to be in his late twenties, both of which had a much longer string of crimes and atrocities attached to their names "These two individuals are known only as Wild Dog and Wild Fang. Other than that they are the two in charge of Wild Hunt we have no information on either of them, no other known aliases, places of birth, nothing. All we have is conjecture with them at best. Be warned though, these men are extremely dangerous and they don't distinguish between an enemy and someone who gets in their way."

It was then that the representative switched off the projector and sat back down, allowing Sonya once again to take the stand "Here are the rules of engagement, when it comes to the Grimm, White Fang or Mileena's rebels you are free to engage however you see fit, but try to engage outside the confines of the city whenever possible. Prisoners are to be taken whenever possible for information. Members of the White Fang however are to be turned over to Outworld after the interrogations are finished as a show of cooperation and goodwill."

It went unsaid that Outworld would likely torture and eventually execute said prisoners the second they got their hands on them. Ordinarily the UN would be reluctant to hand over prisoners of war over to someone who would just kill them and likely without even a trial but given the now rocky political situation with Outworld, it was an unfortunate necessity. They had just lost Shinnok's amulet to a psychopathic rebel who was using as a weapon in her attempt to reclaim control over Outworld. To say that Kotal Kahn wasn't happy with Earthrealm was an understatement.

"When it comes to Tanner and the Wild Hunt, you are not engage them unless you are first fired upon, period."

It was a bit of a shocker that everyone was expected to let a traitor go like that but they wouldn't question their orders especially when there were more important things to worry about.

"We have detailed files on Remnant, the Grimm and the White Fang. I suggest you review them before you head out in one week's time. Any questions?" Asked Sonya.

When no one said a word, the general gave a nod, "Dismissed."

.

* * *

.

To be continued.

A/N: I know, there's not a lot of action this time but next chapter we finally get to see everyone in action including some of Ruby and friends.


	5. Close Encounters of the Grimm Kind

RWBY Dark Side of Light

Chapter 4

Close Encounters of the Grimm Kind

Disclaimer: I don't own anything I only own the characters I have personally created. The character of Nicholas Arc is also one that is based off of Coeur Al'Aran's works.

A/N: Just FYI Alex Stone is not an OC, he's actually a canon character in Mortal Kombat, he just wasn't named or voiced and only appeared in one character's ending in MKX

Lastly: please read and give thoughts, theories and criticisms in a review, I always enjoy constructive feedback.

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* * *

-Forests, Thirty Miles Outside of Vale-

* * *

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Travel via portals was what every first timer would consider…weird. It wasn't like stepping through a doorway and then all of the sudden you were in another room. No at first it felt like you were stepping into a pool of water, but you weren't getting wet, then you got the sensation of something grabbing you by each and every pore of your skin and then that force pulling you through it. It was a very odd feeling that everyone who had traveled to other realms said that it was simply something that one got used to. For first timers though, it could easily result in nausea and headaches.

Corporal Alex Stone wished that someone had told him this before he stepped through the portal from Earthrealm to Remnant. The Special Forces corporal leaned forwards in his seat in the Stryker and tried to reorient himself as well as keep his stomach contents inside where they belonged. From further down Cassie Cage looked at him with a mix of amusement and pity "Frist time through a portal right?"

Alex gave small nod and lurched forward in his seat "Yeah, it's certainly…eventful." Cassie gave a small chuckle from her seat and said "Don't worry you get used to it after a while."

Soon though, Alex noticed that Cassie elbowed her dad who was sitting right next to her and seemed rather disappointed about something.

"Yeah, yeah. Bleed me dry why don't ya?" he complained but despite his words, it was obvious that he was just complaining for the sake of it. He looked like was about to try and fish some extra cash out of his pockets but soon realized that due to the mission parameters he had to leave anything behind that could cause too much suspicion, which included currency. The weapons, vehicles and equipment they could get away with by saying that their PMC had built them on their own but even then there would be some suspicions so it would be best to keep them to a minimum.

Johnny Cage then put up his hands in a placating manner, as though he was addressing a particularly impatient loan shark "I'll pay you once we get back, I promise." Cassie only cocked an eyebrow upwards making Alex wonder if this kind of thing had happened before.

In response Cassie's father put a hand over his chest in an almost overdramatic fashion "I Johnny Cage, swear on my immortal soul that I will give my daughter the twelve dollars I owe her on the bet we made."

The other soldiers in the Stryker started snickering, especially Jacqui and it was then that Stone realized that Cassie and her dad had made a bet on whether or not he would puke during the journey through the portal. He honestly had no idea how to feel about that one given how both Cages enjoyed trying their hardest to get a rise out of everyone around them (to the point that he wondered whether such a condition was genetic). Still though he supposed that he should probably feel some semblance of satisfaction that his commanding officer had at least some faith in him.

The group had come with over a platoon's worth of soldiers, and that wasn't including the representatives from the Shaolin, Shirai-Ryu or the Lin Kuei, all of which were packed into Strykers and Humvees. The Strykers were equipped with either the standard M151 Protector System turret, 40mm cannons, though there was one that had a 105mm mobile gun system. The Humvees were more heavily armored than the standard variant that the military used all the while making sure that it still maintained decent speed and maneuverability. The turret mounted Browning machine guns had all been replaced with GAU miniguns or an anti-air/anti-ground missile system, because like the old saying goes "There's no such thing as overkill."

For the next few minutes the ride proceeded relatively quietly, of course everyone was on alert for the slightest sign of Grimm. This was their first time on Remnant and if they encountered the Grimm it would be the first time anyone from Earthrealm had ever dealt with entities like this so it was best to remain as cautious as possible. Even if they didn't prove to be as dangerous as the army of demons that inhabited the Netherrealm or Shao Kahn's armies from twenty years ago, it paid to be prepared.

Eventually though one of the other soldiers in the platoon looked over at the unit's commanding officer, a captain by the name of Faulkner and asked "Hey cap, is it true you once took out an undead dragon with a pistol during the Netherrealm war?"

Faulkner was a balding man in his mid-forties and his face had numerous scars that a few people might call 'disturbing' on his face. The most prevalent of which were a trio of claw mark like scars that crossed from his forehead down past his left eye and down to his jaw in a diagonal fashion. Many people who encountered Faulkner were put off by his appearance and given the slight rasp in his voice…he had a hard time socializing outside of his circle of friends in the military.

The captain gave his subordinate a flat look for a second before sighing and massaging his temples, trying to fend off annoyance "For the love of…look I didn't kill one with a damn pistol I was part of a unit that was using guided missiles on it, I just happened to fire the one that finished it off, _that's it_." He declared, somewhat annoyed.

There were a number of stories as to Captain Faulkner's exploits. He wasn't as well-known as Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, Jackson Briggs or the others but there were those who knew of his exploits.

It was then that Johnny Cage gave a comically offended look "You know how come everyone always asks Faulkner about his badass moments, especially when the guy who beat the hell out of Shinnok is sitting right _here_."

At that Jacqui rolled her eyes at her honorary uncle's display "Well, considering you won't stop bragging about it to everyone, I'd say that everyone back home knows about it, especially when the news programs wouldn't shut up about it for months afterwards and you gave several interviews. So yeah, we aren't going to stroke your ego Johnny."

Johnny gave his daughter a desperate look for support who just shrugged, not even bothering to resist the urge to mess with her father "Sorry pops but you have told the story so many times that it's kinda getting old."

The former actor gave a mock-affronted look and held his hand up in front of his face in an overdramatic fashion "Even my own child has turned against me! Oh how will I go on?"

Everyone, (especially Johnny) started to break out into laughter at the over-the-top performance he was giving. Eventually though the laughter stated to die down and it became clear that everyone was in relatively good spirits and when one considering that these 'Grimm' were attracted to negative emotions that may very well just prove to be a good thing. Sure it probably wouldn't keep a few strays from showing up along their path to Vale but at least they were relatively secure in the knowledge that they wouldn't have to deal with a whole horde of those things every step of the way. Besides it was always fun to mess with Johnny when given the opportunity.

It was only a few minutes later that the voice of the other soldiers in the platoon came over the radio. "Captain Faulkner, this is Corporal Keegan," the voice declared.

It wasn't even a second later that the captain gave his response "What's going on soldier?" he asked. "Sir we were monitoring any traffic on the air, figured that we should know ahead of time if someone important from Vale contacts us but we quickly found this on an open channel, I'll patch it through."

There was a second or two before another voice came over the radio, only this one seemed like it was on the verge of complete and utter panic. "If anyone can hear me I'm from a small settlement south-westof Vale called Ansel, we are under attack by Grimm. Hunters from Vale are on their way but we can't last that long we need help _now_! Anyone listening to this transmission please! We need help!"

For several seconds silence reigned before another voice, this one was of Kung Jin, the Shaolin selected to represent the White Lotus "Captain Faulkner, we cannot leave those people to die."

The way he spoke told everyone that even if the captain decided not to help, he would just get out of the transport he was in and walk. Not only that but other voices soon joined him. Most notably the representatives from the Shirai Ryu and the Lin Kuei but that wasn't to say that the VSSE operators were silent as well

"I gotta agree with Jin, we can't just let them die."

"The Lin Kuei did not change from killers of the innocent to their protectors simply abandon those in need."

"I didn't join VSSE to just sit and watch innocent people get slaughtered."

"Same here."

Judging by the looks on everyone else's face they seemed like they had similar opinions. Granted it was unlikely that the soldiers in the APCs would disobey orders but they clearly wouldn't be happy about. Besides Faulkner wasn't a heartless monster, he would help if it was within his power to do so, and the more pragmatic part of him knew that when the time came for Earthrealm to make official contact with the locals, having their military save some of the locals would go a long way to help relations.

At last Faulkner spoke, assuaging his subordinates "Don't worry we're not going to leave them. Corporal patch me through now." There was a quick "yes sir!" before he got to work.

Within a few seconds the job was done. The captain immediately spoke into the radio while the man was in the middle of repeating his plea for help "Alright calm down, calm down, this is Captain Faulkner of Nimbus Security Solutions, who am I speaking with?"

"I-I-I'm D-Dudley, I'm in the v-village militia," he managed to get out.

"Okay Dudley do you have exact geographic coordinates for your town?" Faulkner asked. The militiaman fumbled for several seconds before he managed to give a response. The terrified young man managed to stutter out the coordinates and after a few seconds of checking a map the SF commander smiled when he found that they were actually only a ten minute drive away at full speed.

"Alright kid I've got some good news, we're roughly ten minutes away so just hang in there alright? Help is on the way!"

The relief and happy tears were palpable even through the radio as he said "Thank you!" over and over.

Faulkner looked back to address the rest of the unit sitting in their seats "Alright lock-and-load ladies and gentlemen, we got ourselves a settlement to save!"

.

* * *

-Bullhead, currently en-route to Ansel-

* * *

.

A little over two hours ago a radio transmission from a small town called Ansel that indicated that it was under attack by Grimm and that the town's militia was holding them off but more and more Grimm were arriving every few minutes. To make matters even worse, most of the hunters in Vale were already out on duty dealing with similar problems all over the territories. The only hunters available were faculty from Beacon and some of their students.

Given the situation Vale's council ordered the immediate deployment of whoever was ready at the time. This included several members of Beacon's faculty along with three full teams of students, one second year and two first years. Ordinarily first years wouldn't be sent off to fight in a Grimm incursion but given the situation there weren't many options. Fortunately though some of the visiting Atlesian students had volunteered to join the mission.

Inside one of the bullheads was team JNPR lead by one Jaune Arc. The instant that the announcement came that Ansel was under attack he was the first to volunteer their team to go there and help with the defense. The other members of his team were somewhat surprised by his eagerness to go on this particular mission, especially his partner, Pyrrha Nikos. While Jaune had shown more confidence (especially where his crush on Weiss was concerned) since standing up to Cardin he still had some hesitation in regards to other things.

Not to mention that when he had first boarded the Bullhead along with the rest of his team he had shown an almost ridiculous amount of anxiety and even fear that was only comparable to when the boy had first shown up at Beacon. Still though he hadn't been nearly as bad as Ruby had been back then, and there was something to be said for that. It was odd, seeing an eagerness mixed with fear and anxiety in Jaune.

Pyrrha wasn't the only one to notice as Jaune continued to fidget in his seat. For a while Pyrrha just thought that it was his motion sickness as he had used several paper bags as the flight continued but it quickly became clear that there was something more going on. She had been around him long enough to recognize at least some of his tics and it was obvious to her that there was something more going on here.

"Jaune are you okay?" she asked kindly trying to get the boy's attention. Jaune had just finished using up yet another paper bag for ensuring that his stomach contents didn't litter the floor of the Bullhead.

Jaune had just finished emptying what was hopefully the last of his stomach contents into the bag, "Y-yeah, I'm fine" he managed to get out.

Nora and Ren looked at one another before the short ginger looked at him with a cocked eyebrow "You're looking a bit weirder than normal fearless leader." Jaune attempted an offended look at that in addition to asking whether the pot and kettle had met but couldn't manage it due to the nausea.

Lie Ren ever the mediator decided to translate "What Nora means is that you seem very anxious." While his perky childhood friend nodded before looking at him with and blinked in confusion "Isn't that what I just said?"

The leader of JNPR sighed, he figured that they would all find out about this sooner or later so may as well just tell them now. "Ansel, it's my hometown, my entire family lives there."

Suddenly everyone in the Bullhead knew exactly why he was so worried.

Pyrrha gave her partner a compassionate look and placed a hand on his shoulder "Jaune, I'm sure they'll be okay," she said trying to reassure him despite the possibility of darker fates befalling his family. Still though it did seem to reassure Jaune somewhat as he managed a smile that while it didn't quite reach his ears it was still somewhat better than how he had been feeling ever since he had heard of the attack on Ansel.

"Still maybe I'm worrying for nothing I mean my dad has been a Huntsman since forever so he's probably down there taking charge of the militia and by the time we get there everyone will be cleaning up what's left of the Grimm." Jaune tried to let out a half-hearted chuckle but it was interrupted once again by another bout of motion-sickness.

.

* * *

-Ansel, 30 miles outside of Vale-

* * *

.

Things weren't going very well at Ansel to say the least. The militia had managed to hold the walls but they had never expected something like this to happen. Ever since it had been first founded, Ansel had for the most part been left relatively alone by such large packs of Grimm. Sure there were always a few stray packs of Grimm every now and then but it was nothing that the town militia or even the resident Hunters could handle. This however was something that none of them had ever seen before. No matter what they did, no matter how many Grimm they killed, they just kept coming. It was like something out of a horror movie, where the monsters would just keep coming no matter what was thrown at them.

It made absolutely no sense, there had been no unrest in the town in ages, and all of the militia scouts that they had sent out had reported only a handful of scattered Grimm every few miles. This kind of massive attack shouldn't be happening, and yet, here it was, a nightmare made reality. The militia had been caught almost completely off-guard and it was only because there were already a number of Hunters living in the town that it had managed to keep the Grimm from breaching the walls.

So far the Grimm were entirely focused solely on the southern walls, which was a blessing in some respects because it allowed the defenders to focus all of their efforts in one area rather than be spread too thin. This was perhaps the only thing that had allowed the defenders to hold out for so long but it was clear that if they didn't get any relief soon, it was only a matter of time before the walls were breached and the defenders overrun.

On the head of one of the walls was one Nicholas Arc. Nicholas arc was a man in his early-forties and had been a huntsman for most of his life. As a result he had been through more than his fair share of near hopeless situations but this was quite possibly one of the worst he'd ever been in.

He and the rest of the defenders had only just managed to fight off another wave of Grimm. He finally allowed himself to relax slightly at the reprieve. It was unlikely that he and the rest of the militia would be able to catch their breath for much longer if the next wave hit as quickly as the last one did. To make matters worse, it wasn't the entirety of the militia that was at the walls, instead there were more than a fair number of them that were trying to get the civilians that lived near the southern walls away from them and deeper into the settlement.

A few minutes earlier one of the guys trying to raise someone over the radio reported back that a group calling themselves "Nimbus Security Solutions" had heard their distress call and were coming over to help. They sounded like some kind of group of mercenaries but at this point Arc couldn't be bothered to care. If this continued they weren't going to be able to hold out until anyone finally arrived.

It was at that point when he heard the tell-tale howls of Beowolves but that wasn't the only thing he heard. There was a series of loud screeching noises that were coming from the woods. It was a sound that Arc knew all too well; a Death Stalker, and a big one.

As if to foreshadow the monster's approach the trees in the forest beyond the clearing began to fall and within mere moments the chittering monster covered in white bony plates emerged before letting out a hellish screech. Immediately Nicholas Arc turned his attention to the monster with his weapon, a rifle/greatsword that he had named Ascalon and opened fire. Under normal circumstances he would use armor piercing rounds to get through the armor and do damage to the thing's interior. Alternatively explosive dust ammo could be used to chip away at the armor from a distance until the armor cracked open enough to use regular bullets to do the real damage. Unfortunately Nicholas had neither the proper ammunition nor the distance to use such a strategy.

Immediately he yelled for any nearby militiamen to focus fire on the Death Stalker, even as it began to charge at the wall. It wasn't likely that it could breach their defenses but it was sure as hell more than capable of climbing up and over it. And if the thing was too heavy well, it just may end up bringing a good chunk of the wall down during its climb.

The defenders knew that the people still living close the walls were still trying to evacuate deeper into the settlement. If a breach happened or the Death Stalker got in it would mean a massacre! For the defenders the day was truly at its darkest. But even on this darkest of days, a miracle happened!

The first the beleaguered defenders knew of their salvation was when a series of loud explosions filled their ears. Less than a second afterwards The Death Stalker that had been charging at the wall tumbled down, one of its legs blown clean off its body by something while cracks and fissures appeared on its armored carapace as a result of the impacts.

Nicholas turned his head to look at the source of the noise and saw some of the most heavily armed and armored vehicles he had ever seen in his life.

There were several of them that looked like five seater armored off-road trucks, but each one had a multi-barreled turret mounted on the roof, which were now unleashing a torrent of firepower into the tide of Grimm that were attempting to besiege the walls. Whatever those guns were firing, they were literally chewing through the smaller Grimm like tissue paper. Not only that but directly beside them were several far larger eight wheeled vehicles, several of which had some of the largest guns that Nicholas had ever seen. Almost all of them were already focusing their fire on the Death Stalker. The only ones that weren't were the ones that had some kind of missile launchers built onto their turrets and those were the ones being fired at the Nevermore in the air to great effect.

The vehicle with the biggest gun of the bunch had already swiveled its turret to aim directly at the beast but didn't fire, even as the thing started to pick itself back up. Nicholas was curious as to why it was when the weapon finally fired with bone jarring force and a massive roar, forcing the man and several of his comrades to cover their ears at the sound.

The results however, were incredible, the Death Stalker had been all but blown in half by the round and it was already starting to disintegrate like all Grimm would upon death.

Not waiting at all for the Grimm to continue the attack the vehicles surged forwards, firing their guns at anything that so much as twitched. The defenders let out a cheer, finally their prayers had been answered, that group, Nimbus something-or-other had come for them.

It was only when the vehicles had established a perimeter around the southern gate that the larger vehicles lowered their boarding ramps and dozens of armed men and women poured out of them. The smaller trucks also disgorged their own cargo, even more armed soldiers but there were also three uniquely dressed individuals with them. Two of them looked like…well ninjas for the lack of a better word while the other looked odd, but given his appearance it seemed as though he was from Mistral.

Almost immediately one of the soldiers seemingly looked directly at him and called out "Hey, whoever's in charge up there, you mind if you get down here? We got a bit of a situation."

Well if that wasn't the truth Arc didn't know what was.

It took a few moments but Nicholas Arc found himself outside the gates and in front of the soldiers several of whom were setting up multi-barreled turrets just outside the perimeter of vehicles. The man whom Arc thought was in charge stretched out his arm "Captain Faulkner, Nimbus Security Solutions."

Nicholas Arc gave the man a thankful look and shook his hand "Nicholas Arc. Thanks for the help captain we-" Nicholas Arc cut himself off when he noticed that there was a dire look about the other man's face.

"Mr. Arc I'm sorry but I'm afraid we'll have to cut the pleasantries for now. What we've just dealt with here, is just a small force ahead of something much larger. Our equipment shows that we've got maybe a few minutes at most to get ready for an even bigger horde of these bastards."

There was a look of pure horror on Arc's face for a split second before he regained his composure "Alright, alright…we still have some people living near the walls, can you have some of your people help evacuate them deeper into the town?" he asked.

Immediately Captain Faulkner turned to one of his subordinates a young woman who was probably only a year or so older than Nicholas' only son. "Sergeant Cage, take your team, Lambert and Dunaway and assist with the evacuation, take a couple of Strykers along with you-know-who with."

'_You-know-who?'_ thought Nicholas while the young lady shrugged "Yes sir, Come on guys, you too dad!" she called. At that an older man wearing a similar yet slightly more casual outfit in comparison to the other soldiers began to follow said daughter into one of the Strykers. The guy had a small grin on his face and a pair of shades over his eyes and was carrying the same kind of rifle that his allies were using, but he also had a pistol and a knife attached to his belt. All in all, he looked more like an actor who was pretending to be a Huntsman than an actual Huntsman.

He also noticed a pair of individuals who were dressed in even more casual wear than the one with the sunglasses and were carrying similar weaponry.

Nicholas however was brought out of his thoughts when he thought he heard what sounded like more roars coming from the tree line beyond them. They only had minutes at most before the next wave hit. He watched as Faulkner gave orders to his men to either man the guns on their vehicles or head up to the walls and aid the defenders there.

The Huntsman however, noticed that the town's militia were working with renewed vigor as they prepared barricades and gathered more ammunition. Now that they had a real chance of holding out long enough for Vale to send support, they figured they had a chance of getting out of this mess alive.

.

* * *

-Ansel, Interior, near the walls-

* * *

.

The second that Cassie and her team were inside the walls they immediately set to work to help get as many of the civilians out of the area as possible. She could already see that there were already a number of militia trying to get people into trucks or their own personal vehicles so they could be taken deeper into the settlement. Immediately she directed her team to start assisting with the evacuation in any way they could.

They were already putting in civvies that were considered high risk for this sort of thing into the Strykers, the sick, the elderly and the kids. Though with the latter it was somewhat different to separate the younger kids from their older family members.

"I don't wanna go!" a little girl roughly six or seven years of age with dog ears begged as she attached herself to an older individual, more specifically another girl that appeared to be in her early teens with the same kind of ears on her head. She and her siblings had been placed into the Stryker's well protected interior along with several other residents. The girl's older sibling was desperately trying to dislodge the child-like growth from her body but was thus far unsuccessful.

"Come on I'll be right behind you, you don't have to worry," the girl claimed. Her younger sister however just kept crying and shoved her face into her shoulder and sobbed harder.

Cassie was about to head over there to try and talk some sense into the kid when she saw Alex moving towards them. He had his AA12 slung and a concerned look on his face. "Hey are you two alright?" he asked.

The thirteen year old girl looked a bit nervous at the human who was approaching them. "Look I'm sorry she's just scared-" she started but Alex just held up both his hands in a placating gesture and his facial expression changed to one of compassion "Don't worry, I know how this is. Can I try talking to her?"

The girl shrugged as best she could with her little sister wrapped around her before the soldier looked directly at the six year-old "Hey kid? What's your name?" he asked. The little girl seemed extremely reluctant to even utter a word but eventually answered the question.

"V-V-Violet" the younger sibling managed to stutter out. "Alright Violet my name is Alex Stone. Now I know you're scared, we're all scared, but we all need to be brave right now. Can you be brave for your sister and let go?"

Violet looked extremely reluctant to comply "B-but w-what if-" she started before she began to break down into sobs.

"I promise she'll be right behind you and you can hug her as much as you want when we get you both to safety. But you need to be strong for your sister and let go for right now." Reluctantly, and still sniffling the little girl let go of her older sister and rejoined the rest of her siblings in the Stryker. Once she was inside the vehicle, the ramp raised up and the Stryker began to move out.

For a few seconds the older sister simply stood there watching as the Stryker drove away deeper into the settlement. Eventually though Cassie's voice broke through "Hey what are you waiting for? Get to the trucks so you can rejoin your siblings!" she called out.

Immediately the girl complied and started to make her way over to the town's trucks. As she did, Cassie walked over to her teammate and asked "Where'd you learn how to do that?"

At that Alex actually looked at Cassie somewhat sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head with his free hand "Well actually it's something that my little sister would do whenever dad would go out on deployment when we were younger. He'd calm her down in a similar manner so I figured I'd try something similar."

Cassie looked as though she was about so say something when sounds of gunfire and missiles being launched filled the air. Almost immediately Captain Faulkner's voice came through the comm. "Hurry up with the evacuations we've got a fuck-ton of Grimm bearing down on us! Support from Vale is still a few minutes out!" Despite yelling his voice was nearly drowned out by the cacophony of gunfire.

Sure enough the Refugees all stopped what they were doing and turned to look in the direction of the noise almost simultaneously. In fact all of them had the exact same deer-in-the-headlights expression.

A few meters away Kung Jin and the others could be heard directing orders to the other refugees to continue boarding the trucks despite the gunfire and inhuman roars that resounded throughout the area. Sure enough that seemed to manage to snap the civvies out of their bizarre trance and make them start moving.

They continued to board the trucks for several seconds until there was a loud boom coming from the settlement's walls. Immediately the team turned to see what was happening and saw what they had all expected to see; an oversized hole where a once sturdy fortification once stood, there was only rubble and dust was spread throughout the immediate area around it. Despite the lowered visibility everyone saw the glowing red eyes beyond the dust.

In less than a second, the team had already drawn their weapons, Cassie and her dad with their rifles, The VSSE agents drew their rifles while keeping their trusty pistols at the ready, Kung Jin with his bow, Jacqui with her power gauntlets/machineguns, Glacier formed a pair of kori-axes in his hands and Takeda already had his whip in one hand while clutching a kunai in-between each knuckle.

They were flanked by several militia members who, while having what could only really be described as semi-automatic rifles or crossbows but it was still better than nothing.

"Get ready to fire on my command!" ordered Cassie as she flipped the safety off on her rifle. Sure enough there were howls, hisses and shrieks coming from just behind the dust.

"FIRE!" She yelled.

Those armed with ranged weapons immediately complied, even as the Grimm surged forwards past the breach. Everything from bullets to arrows were fired, even as the Grimm started to stream into the breach.

The Grimm charged forwards, unheeding of the casualties they were suffering. Unfortunately for the defenders it was clear that they needed to reload their weapons. However at this point Glacier stepped forwards and spread his arms out, the air becoming colder and colder around his comrades. Despite the charge of the Grimm, Glacier, true to his namesake did not move nor show any signs of fear.

The mob of Beowolves, Ursai, and Creeps were stopped quite literally dead in their tracks as dozens of spears made from razor sharp ice seemingly appeared from the ground skewering many of the charging Grimm. Almost immediately the dead Grimm began to evaporate, despite the brief reprieve however the Grimm began to spread out and the fighting began in earnest.

It was truly a chaotic mess of a battle, Takeda threw his kunai into the closest Ursa, the built-in explosives detonating the second they found purchase in the creature's skin, blowing huge chunks out of the beast, killing it almost instantly. A few moments later he coiled the barbed metallic whip around the head of a Beowolf and gave it a tug, decapitating it.

Kung Jin fired three arrows at a rather large King Taijitu's black half, however these arrows were not the normal ones that he used normally. Inside each arrow were two separated chemicals that would mix together the instant the arrow hit the target, creating an incendiary liquid that would instantly ignite, covering the target on fire. The black portion of the body instantly caught fire and began to burn through its scales at a remarkably fast rate. Not hesitating for even a second, Kung Jin slung his bow/staff and drew a pair of Chakram and threw them at the white half of the oversized snake. The highly sharpened blade sliced through a huge portion of the white portion's body, nearly severing it in half, while the other Chakram cut off the monster's head at the jawline. The oversized snake collapsed onto the ground and it also began evaporating into black particles that were swept up by the winds.

The two VSSE agents fell back as the fighting began to get closer and closer to their position and began to put their superior marksmanship training to good use. They targeted either the eyes of the Grimm or the joints in their limbs with armor piercing explosive rounds. The Grimm that had their eyes damaged flew into a rage as they began to strike out at random, hitting their own allies in the process.

One of the other Beowolves had managed to reach the group but before it could make any sort an attack, Johnny Cage burst forwards, leaving green afterimages in his wake. "Heeeeeerrrrres Johnny!" he yelled with a goofy looking grin on his face.

Cage tossed two orbs of green energy at the beast. Like with opponents he had faced in the past Johnny had expected the orbs to disorient or even knock the thing back. What he didn't expect was that the orbs seemed to literally _melt_ through the beast's bone plating and into its body like a powerful acid. The Beowolf howled in a rage as it attempted to claw the orbs out of its body only for its own claws to start melting the more it struggled.

To make matters even more interesting a few seconds after the orbs impacted, they effectively exploded, destroying almost everything above the waist which stumbled forwards for a second or two before falling forwards onto the ground.

Johnny's eyebrows shot upwards past the rims of his sunglasses. "Okay, wasn't expecting that…awesome!" He then proceeded to toss more orbs at the monsters. Of course he couldn't keep such a pace up indefinitely, even Johnny as proficient as he was with Green Energy would need time to rest. He had found this out the hard way during the Netherrealm war where the near nonstop fighting had drained him.

Fortunately Johnny knew how to pace himself so when another Beowolf came close enough he ducked underneath a horizontal strike the creature made with its claws. He then proceeded to uppercut the beast with such force that one could hear the bones in its jaw shatter and head straight through its skull. The best fell backwards onto its back and begin to dissipate.

Jacqui meanwhile used both of her power gauntlet machineguns to riddle Grimm with bullets but prioritized striking at their legs in order to slow down their advance in a similar manner to the VSSE agents. She was joined by Cassie who, having just emptied her magazine into a Beowolf was pulling a pin out of one of her grenades. Once the pin was free of the explosive device Cass tossed the grenade into the gaping maw of a growling Creep that had gotten too close.

The Creep seemed to have realized its mistake when it accidentally swallowed the grenade and its eyes widened almost comically for a split-second before the weapon detonated. There wasn't anything left of the creep aside from a few limbs and chunks of flesh that fell to the ground before evaporating.

While these actions were slowing down the Grimm it ultimately wasn't stopping them and judging by the long bursts of gunfire coming from the walls it was clear that they were all but on their own for the time being. Sure a few of the other soldiers were providing some support but it wasn't enough. The Grimm were simply starting to gain more and more ground, slowly but surely.

To make matters even worse a pair of Ursai –both minors if she was correct- disengaged from the group and started making their way directly for the civilians that hadn't finished boarding the damn trucks. Immediately Cassie recognized this and turned to Alex with a determined look on her face "Corporal stop those things before they get to the civvies!"

Much to her un-surprise Corporal Stone immediately sprinted on ahead towards the Ursa his weapon at the ready. The damn thing seemed completely and utterly focused by the civilians who were all but scrambling over one another to get into the evac trucks; some of which had already started moving away, either filled up to capacity or they were simply trying to save whoever they could.

One of the Ursai was closer to the civilians than the other, most noticeably to a familiar looking young dog Faunus. Immediately Alex shouldered his AA-12 automatic shotgun and pulled the trigger, sending off six shells at the target. The armor piercing explosive slugs flew downrange, their flight patterns stabilized by metal fins. The shells struck the back of the beast and upon penetrating the creature's hide the shells exploded, blowing enormous holes in bear-like monster.

The Ursa that was struck by the rounds went down fairly quickly, but unfortunately Stone's weapon was jammed and there was simply no time to remove the obstruction. Slinging his weapon he immediately pulled out his sidearm, an H&K Mark 23 pistol and fired off six shots at the Ursa. "Hey you ugly shit! Why go for the snacks when the main goddamn course is right here!" he yelled.

The wounds on the Grimm were superficial all things considered but it did have the effect of getting it to stop its charge. It then slowly turned its head towards its head to look directly at him, its red eyes glowing in what could only be described as fury "Yeah that's right you bastard! Come and get some grade-A meat right here!"

Stone could see the looks on the civilians who were still scrambling to get into the remaining trucks but the girl he had helped earlier was stuck on her rear adjacent to the trucks, staring at him incomprehensively. 'Go.' Alex mouthed.

Fortunately the girl seemed to take the hint and got up and made her way into the nearest truck. For a second the Ursa peered back at the civvies but Alex fired off another two shots at the Ursa, getting its attention "Oi! I'm not done with you yet asshole, eyes on me!" He shouted.

It seemed as though the Ursa finally got the hint and let out a growl at him and began to charge straight at the Special Forces operator. Alex holstered is pistol and drew his primary close combat weapon, a military grade machete that was equipped with a high-frequency blade. Meaning that the blade vibrated at such high speed that it would literally destabilize the molecular bonds of whatever it struck while it was active. Simply put, it could cut through most objects like tissue paper.

High frequency blades were a more recent invention but had seen widespread adoption in militaries around the world due to their usefulness as a close combat weapon. Soon the Ursa would find out just how useful.

The Grimm charged at Alex with a roar. Unlike the civilians Alex didn't run, instead he just stood there in a combat stance, seemingly heedless to the danger he was placing himself in. At the last second Alex jumped out of the way, but brought his machete down as he did, slicing off the right arm of the Ursa at the elbow, sending it careening into the ground.

Despite the wound the beast got back up and snarled at him viciously and stood up as best it could before it began charging at him again, swiping at him again with its remaining claw, overextending itself in the process. He managed to evade the blow and slice downwards once again with his blade, slicing off the limb. The Grimm reared back with a roar for a second even as the corporal lashed out in a horizontal strike with his machete, slicing open the Ursa's throat, causing it to fall backwards and begin to evaporate.

Alex didn't have long to enjoy his victory as another Grimm, this time it was a Beowolf pounced on him knocking him off his feet and onto the ground and his machete just out of his reach. The oversized wolf roared right in his face, sending spittle everywhere. It reared its head back before lunging it straight forwards. Alex was only able to move his head at the absolute last second, the monster's jaws narrowly missing his head by scant centimeters. The beast's head reared back once again, only this time there would be no dodging the blow.

Defiantly Alex pulled his pistol from its holster and shoved the barrel straight into the Beowolf's mouth with a growl "Argh! Eat this!" he yelled pulling the trigger sending a bullet straight into the beast's mouth and upwards into its cranium. He fired again and again even as he reached for his machete.

Once the blade was in his hands he struck upwards with it, decapitating the Beowolf with a single strike. The now dead Grimm fell on top of him the sheer size of the beast completely covering him, its weight pinning Alex to the ground even as he struggled wriggle out. It would disintegrate given time but time wasn't really on his side.

The corporal could hear footsteps coming in his direction for a second before he heard Sergeant Cage's voice "Corporal Stone! You okay?!" she asked.

Alex managed to get an arm free of the monster's bulk and started to wave it around to show that he was still in one piece "Get. This. Thing. Off. Of. Me!" he begged, his voice comically muffled.

He felt hands grab the dead and evaporating monster and pull it off of him. He saw Cassie, Takeda and Glacier looking him over, to check for any obvious size of injuries. They helped him up the second that they were satisfied that there weren't any injuries to attend to. "Are you well?" asked Glacier.

Alex gave a nod as he reloaded his pistol after sheathing his machete. Once that was done he cleared out the spent shell casing that was jamming up his AA-12. However there was little time for any of them to relax as the Grimm continued to advance on their location. To make matters even worse, one of the Grimm had managed to sneak up on them in their rapid movement to assist their teammate.

This one was a particularly large Grimm, a Beringel if the records that the group had seen were correct stood over them, and roared. The quartet readied themselves for a fight but before either the Grimm or the team could so much as make a move, a strange, white elegant runic symbol that looked remarkably like a snowflake appeared underneath the Grimm. Then ice began to form on its legs and before it could try to break out of it, a young woman with long white hair done up into a ponytail that hung off-center drove an elegantly crafted sabre into the head of the Beringel.

She looked upwards and shouted "Ruby now!" before jumping off the thing and right past the four she had just helped. The group looked up and saw several Bullheads flying over the town, with many people jumping from them despite the height.

Too make matters even more chaotic, a young girl wearing red skirt all but teleported in front of the group in a flurry of rose petals, a strange crimson colored rifle in hand. The girl fired off a single round at the Beringel, taking its head clean off its body. The girl then turned to the group with a friendly smile on her face as she shouldered her rifle causing it to transform into scythe that seemed oversized for her small frame.

"Hinicetomeetyagottagotalktoyoulaterbye!" she said in rapid fire before zipping off in a flurry of rose petals towards the Grimm that were still in the area slicing any that she came across in the process to pieces leaving a rather stunned audience behind.

The white haired girl from earlier, whom Alex noted had the palest blue eyes he had ever seen outside of Sub-Zero and his two protégés looked over at them "I'm sorry but proper introductions will need to wait until later."

The white haired girl then ran off to help her friend in fighting off the Grimm. The group then also noticed that there were other Hunters as well. He noticed a girl in a Spartan-esque attire with a spear and shield, fighting along a blonde haired boy with a sword and shield. Though the latter's movements were indicative of someone who was only just learning proper techniques if Glacier's observations were correct.

There was also a girl with short curly orange hair who was using what was for lack of better terms an array of blades that seemed to be moved by metallic wires attached to the girl. She would gesture with her hands and the blades would move on their own volition or they would form a kind of floating laser turret.

They also noticed a dark haired boy with a single pink lock fighting with a pair of pistols that had blades attached to them firing rounds at the Grimm while nimbly dodging around each and every strike. Nearby was another short girl with short orange hair. She was wielding a grenade launcher that in-between firing off grenades and laughing almost maniacally would transform the weapon into an oversized hammer and literally begin smashing whatever Grimm came into her line of sight all while yelling "smash" whenever she hit something.

Meanwhile there were another two girls dealing with Grimm. One had long black hair with a bow on top and carried what looked like a sword/pistol that was being used in conjunction with its sheathe which seemed to also function in the same manner of a cleaver. The other had long blonde hair and apparently was using a pair of gauntleted weapons that fired shotgun shells. She also seemed to be using the blasts as a form of locomotion of all things.

Johnny Cage who had just walked up to the four of them along with the rest of the team looked over at Jacqui and smirked "Looks like you're going to need to get you a lawyer Jacqui, one of the locals seems to be committing copyright infringement."

Jacqui ignored her honorary uncle and Cassie instead turned to the rest of the group and asked "So are we going to just let these guys steal our thunder?"

The answer she got was the rest of the group readied their weapons and seemed more than eager to finish the fight. The team charged forwards to engage the few remaining Grimm that had managed to get through.

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* * *

-Hilltop some distance away-

* * *

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To say that recent developments were…unique would have been an understatement. From the tree-covered hilltop Schwarze Sanguine had been watching the entirety of the incident through his helmet's zoom function with more than just a little bit of interest. For over an hour the settlement had just barely been able to manage to keep the Grimm from breaching the walls as they tried to hold out for reinforcements from Vale. It didn't look as though the settlement would have lasted that long but then what could only have been members of Earthrealm's military had shown up.

With their support not only did they manage to hold out long enough for Vales hunters to arrive but they managed to do so without a single civilian casualty. Schwarze was many things but easy to impress was not one of them. Cinder would need to be told about this development.

The black knight immediately took out his scroll and contacted his lady. Within moments the rightful Fall Maiden answered, her visible eyebrow piqued in curiosity "Schwarze, you're late with your status report. I expected you to contact me almost an hour ago."

"My apologies Cinder but there were complications, it seems the substance we were given by Dr. Merlot is far more potent than anticipated."

Cinder's eyes immediately narrowed as she leaned forwards "Explain."

Schwarze nodded "I used a single vial of Nightshade a good ten miles south of the settlement of Ansel, the second the substance was exposed to enough heat it immediately evaporated into an aerosol and was carried by the wind nearly ten miles, attracting every single Grimm for miles along as it made its way to Ansel where it seemingly finished evaporating."

Cinder seemed more than surprised by the news but managed to hide it relatively well but it was still plain enough for Schwarze to see "Really, Merlot's concoction was _that_ powerful?" she asked, considering the implications of such a formula.

"More like unstable, Nightshade appears to be attract Grimm for miles along if it is exposed to enough heat and this was only a single vial Cinder if we are to use such a substance and it gets out _before_ everything is in place…" Schwarze trailed off letting Cinder fill in the blanks.

"I see, we will need to discuss this once you return," she stated and looked as though she was about to end the call when Schwarze interjected "There is one other thing Cinder. There are several soldiers that came to defend the settlement and they aren't from Vale or Atlas. In fact I would say that it is clear that these individuals are from another Realm entirely." He said before pointing the scroll's camera in the direction of the settlement, more specifically where the soldiers were.

He let Cinder see as much as the Scroll's camera allowed before he turned it back to look at his face. For several seconds, Cinder said nothing but eventually she spoke "I see, return at once, I can't risk anyone from Vale or our new acquaintances finding you. When you arrive I want you to tell me everything that transpired at Ansel."

Schwarze gave a curt nod "It will be done."

The Black Knight then retreated back into the forest and began to make his way back to the rightful Fall Maiden.

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* * *

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To be continued.

A/N: So I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter and I'm sorry that I didn't add in nearly as much of RWBY and JNPR as I would have liked but I couldn't fit them in until the end but I plan on having them take center stage next chapter as everyone meets one another and Jaune deals with an…impromptu family reunion.


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